Death Zone
by SadisticSmartass91
Summary: Two years after the outbreak, human and vampires alike are fighting to survive, hiding themselfes and fearing the night. When two opposing partys strand in the middle of nowhere, can they put aside old conflicts to fight their shared enemy? Itachi x OC (male); some yaoi (if i can manage), New version!
1. Prolouge

**AN**: I have been changing this story around a little. So this is a new version. Enjoy reading

Note, the Shuichi in this story is **not** Uchiha Shuichi, but my very own character.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto chracters.

* * *

The death zone, as they called it. Vast land that was bare of any humans. Where once little villages sat cozily between hills and on small rivers everything was destroyed.

The remands of one town after another passed under them. Empty buildings, many of them partly destroyed, rubbish and signs of rushed escapes or useless fights were everywhere. The villages and towns were slowly reclaimed by nature. Plants growing in the streets and the buildings, animals were fleeing beneath them. Only they could live in these zones nowadays, since they weren't seen as prey by them, at least most times.

Apart from the cars, rubbish and other things left during escape the streets were empty, not even bodies could be found anymore. He knew it wouldn't stay like this. As soon as night breaks they would crawl out from their hiding places, deep inside those dark, empty houses of the towns they were passing.

Most of the bigger city's had at least partly survived the last year. Humans could live there hiding behind walls or in safe basements underground during the night.

He had no idea how the rest of the world was faring. They weren't able to make any contact yet. Perhaps they were somewhat better off, since they had been prepared for the horrors to come after hearing the news of this unnatural catastrophe in Japan. After all, it had started here.

Here in Japan the first Vampire appeared. They weren't such a big problem though. Humans continued living like before. Well, of course many were killed by vampires and it got all big on the news every time with hunts and demonstrations following after. But not all vampires were like that, most continued living unnoticed by society. And mind, they weren't that much different from humans.

But suddenly everything changed. Six years after the 'Vampire Outbreak', about a year ago, a new threat appeared. The Reapers.

Most reapers lose their consciousness and logical mind and are simply blood addicted machines. They aren't completely dumb, but rather think like (none too smart) animals.

Sadly, they didn't seem to die of hunger, at least not that he knew of. It would have been way to easy this way. Thus, chopping of their heads or burning them was the only way to get rid of them. Luckily they burnt very well, even the sun was enough to set their skin to fire. This was the reason they only came out during night and sometimes on dark, clouded days.

Most humans still despised vampires, which is also why he made sure their existence and location would stay secret for now. They would let other cities know of them, when the time seemed right. One enemy breathing down their necks was enough to deal with for now.

As of right now he, Tomoya Shuichi, was one of the major leaders of a bigger city on the coast. It housed vampires as well as humans. So far they managed to life together peacefully, more or less.

He also was a leading commander of an army, most of them vampires. His own small unit called themselves _Dragons Breath_, which wasn't his idea mind.

"Commander, we are approaching Nagoya now, should we make a recount while we're here?"

"That won't be necessary. It was already done two days ago. I thought I put that report on your desk?"

The white haired male in front of him only grinned.

"Must have forgotten to read it then."

Shuichi shook his head in displeasure. If his people continued slacking of like that those monsters might have another feeding feast in the near future.

He could still feel the bruises from some weeks ago as they got into a fight in this very city they were approaching right now. It was a nasty sight, still giving him nightmares.

"Are you all right? You're getting a little bit green. Don't tell me you're getting air sick now. The helicopter still needs about an hour to get to the city."

"I'm fine, don't bother."

The lack of blood for the many vampires of his city was one of their bigger problems. Their scientists are working hard for a solution, but didn't have much luck till now.

So they needed other sources.

This sources mostly being human soldiers from other cities. Of course they wouldn't kill them; that definitely wouldn't help stopping the human race from dying out. They simply asked for a blood donation. "Ask" of course meant force, since the humans wouldn't do it freely till now. They would be knocked out and their blood taken via clean syringes. The vampires would make sure the humans got back safely to their cities and then get the hell out of there.

Which was what they had been doing just now. The helicopter being full of cooled blood bags from a successful assault.

"Commander, it seems we got quite the problem."

Shuichi sighed. Heads were surely going to roll if he heard the sentence "I need to pee" again this day.

"What now."

"We are being tailed, look between the clouds above us."

Shuichi blinked in slight confusion and leaned out the open cockpit to look at the thick clouds above them. He narrowed his eyes. There, a small spark of metal shone between the clouds before vanishing again.

"Another helicopter?! Who are they and how could they follow us unnoticed! God damnit Dawn!"

He locked at his back towards their tracking vampire Dawn, who was sound asleep in his seat. Shuichi turned around and shook the man awake, who now looked at him sleepily. He pointed towards the sky above them.

"Tell me who the hell is following us up there!"

Dawn yawned.

"A helicopter with five people inside, commander Uchiha Itachi and his little brother seem to be with them as well."

"Uchiha? From Osaka? Didn't we just assaulted one of their units?!"

Suigetsu grinned.

"Well, seems like they didn't take it kindly."

Shuichi rubbed his temples.

"Yeah, sure they wouldn't. Still, it wouldn't benefit our course to kill or hurt them, just because they might find out our cities location. If their town is lost we're one big step closer to the human worlds end. Besides they might be good partners one day." He felt like he needed to explain this to the older male, in case he might act on his own account and kill them. Those people weren't his favorite folk.

"They? Are you kidding? Did you forget what they do with vampires!"

"How could I. Now get some warning shots at them, warning mind. Don't hit, just get them of their course for now. We will flee through the clouds. Dawn, I'm sure they got a tracking devise onto our heli. Find it. Now."

"Yessir"

Suigetsu slowly leaned out of the cockpit, ready to fire some water bombs near the other helicopter.

Just as he fired a strong wind came up, making their helicopter reel and nearly making him fall out. Shuichi jumped up and grabbed him at his jacket, pulling him back in.

The water bomb, which was supposed to shoot past the humans, instead hit them full force. Apparently it didn't break anything, but someone fell out, seemingly unconscious.

And aren't open sided helicopters stupid?

"Shit!"

Without thinking twice about it, Shuichi grabbed one of the life packs.

"Continue the mission! That's an absolute order! I will be back in some days."

He threw of the head set and jumped after the falling human.

"What! Get the fuck back in idiot!"

It was futile though. Suigetsu sighed in defeat.

"What are we doing now?"

"Exactly what the commander ordered us to do. Let's get out of here, Shu will manage."

At least he hoped so. He threw one last look at the ground before they vanished into the clouds.

Great. One of their most important commanders just got lost in the middle of the death zone. And dusk was coming soon.

He would never hear the end of this.


	2. Day Zero

Death zone – Chapter 1

"Get me down! !"

Sasuke kept his gaze locked to the rough spot where his brother should have hit the ground but they were way too high up to make out any details. He hadn't even seen his brother fall down the whole way; his body simply vanished, being too small for human eyes to recognize anymore.

And now they were getting further and further away, they were going to leave Itachi behind. Why didn't they have any parachutes on this thing? Those belong to the standard equipment.

"We can't turn back now. We got a leak in our tank because of their attack. It might just be enough now to get back into the cities reach. Sasuke be reasonable!"

Kisame tried calming the younger Uchiha down, even if he himself nearly jumped after his friend. He would have, if they had any parachutes. When they got back heads would roll! Whoever equipped this helicopter would wish he was never born.

"Then we can as well get down now!"

"Got damnit he's dead! And now shut the hell up, we have more important problems than that." Apparently Sai's men were more worried about their own live than the fact they just lost the oldest Uchiha son, whom they should have protected.

Sasuke let himself fall back into his seat, all energy run out. Tears filled his eyes as he held his head in his hands.

"No…"

Kisame would have strangled that man on the spot, but he was more worried about Sasuke. Itachi would never forgive him if that boy decided to do something stupid. He sat down besides Sasuke, laying an assuring arm around him.

"Don't listen to them. You saw that vampire too, the one that jumped after Itachi?"

Bracing himself up and rubbing his eyes dry Sasuke nodded.

"Yeah, you really think he saved Itachi?"

"Not if the shot I fired after him hit."

Kisame glared at Sai, he would definitely strangle that man one day. He couldn't understand why Itachi's father liked to be around those emotionless morons, perhaps because he was one himself.

"Well, you don't go jumping after people hundreds of feet over the earth just to make sure they're really dead after they reach the ground. Besides, weren't you the one believing those vampires never had a bad intention assaulting our troops but no other choice to do so?"

Sasuke sighed. He had mentioned something like this to his brother some days earlier. They had argued about it.

"I really hope you're right."

_Some hours earlier…_

Knock knock…

"Commander, the general send me."

Itachi glared at the closed door and put away his shaving tools, drying his skin with a towel.

What could his father possibly want from him now? He came from a mission in the death zone today and just saw him nearly an hour ago during a meeting.

"Come in"

One of his father's lieutenants, Sai if he remembered correctly, came in and bowed slightly.

"I'm here to brief you on your next mission, which is starting right now, Sir."

Itachi raised an eyebrow. He wasn't left any time to relax was he?

"Go on"

Sai straightened up.

"About half an hour ago we lost contact to one of our units that had been sent out to retrieve goods from the death zone north of us. Instead a tracking device that one of my own man had with him got activated. He had the order to fasten it on one of those vampires, if they should be assaulted again.

You, commander Sasuke, I and two other men are to track the signal back to their hide out as soon as it starts moving. You may choose one of your own men to accompany you, Sir."

Shortly said, he would have to make himself ready now. The way Sai had said it, it nearly sounded as if this unit was supposed to be bait for the vampires.

He rubbed his temple in annoyance. Since the reaper outbreak he wasn't left even a minute to relax. He couldn't even celebrate his 25 birthday, he wasn't sure if his father even remembered as caught up with killing reapers and vampires as he was.

"What about the lost unit?"

"Sir, another team will check up on them as soon as we leave."

So they didn't care about what happened to those men.

"It may not be those vampires this time, but someone or something else that got to them."

"That risk had to be taken; besides it would already be too late now."

Why did he even bother arguing? Even if he didn't like this coldness Sai and his fathers' men showed they were ensuring their survival. It was all that counted nowadays.

He just hoped he wouldn't lose his humanity too.

"Alright, inform my brother and Hoshigaki-sama. I will meet everyone down at the airfield.

Sai bowed and left him to get ready.

As he arrived at the airfield a grumpy looking Kisame and Sasuke and an impassive Sai together with another man he didn't recognized greeted him. Sai and the man bowed before him.

"Sir, the signal started moving. We have to make haste before it is out of reach."

Itachi nodded for him to go on then and moved into the helicopter with everyone else. They soon started to pursuit the vampires.

Personally he thought their behavior to be weird; his brother had mentioned it too already. He couldn't make up his mind about their intention. Vampires were their foes, they killed countless humans. Then why weren't those ones behaving like it. They never killed, they only stole some blood and not much either.

He confirmed it with other cities too, they weren't the only ones assaulted. Of course he didn't tell anyone about it yet, he still wasn't convinced of the vampires being friendly, like Sasuke thought.

But he even found a pattern in their assaults. They changed their hunting area regularly and would never assault the same unit twice a month. If a man had changed out of an assaulted unit into another one within a month, which was then assaulted, they wouldn't take that man's blood. He had even tried it out on himself some times, first to prove this theory and second to get a confirmation that he had analyzed the vampires' pattern right. Unfortunately they were smarter than he thought and had changed their pattern of attacks after they caught him with three different units in a row.

Which meant the vampires knew their solders identities, which unit they belonged to and when and where this unit would be out of their city. This was what was making him nervous.

They might have a mole in their city, even in more than one city and perhaps they were human. It wasn't that easy for a vampire to get into a city nowadays.

And of course it had been stupid to make it so obvious that he understood their pattern of attacks but he had hoped his theory's to be wrong, because they would support his brother's theory of the vampires meaning no harm.

They had followed them east for a little over an hour and an half now, skidding around towns here and there. Most of the still living cities were near the coast anyway and far away from Tokio. He wasn't that much surprised, that they were moving into the direction of Tokio. What better place was there to hide a lot of vampires than there, were no other living towns were anymore.

"Sir, it looks like we have been noticed, shall we move back?"

Itachi leaned out of the open cockpit, noticing another helicopter just beneath them. Well shit, he hadn't realized they were this close. No wonder they had been noticed. What did they have that tracking device for anyway? When he got back he would have to need to talk with his father about the common sense of his people, which they seemed to have lost somewhere on the way.

"Let's fall back for now. We will see if they notice the tracking device, if not we will continue. This time, with a bigger space between us, please. We are not to take any risk to our lives and …"

That moment something seemed to hit their helicopter. It jolted and Itachi who had no safety belt around him was thrown to the back.

He felt a harsh pain at the back of his head, before he noticed himself falling.

"Itachi!"

His brothers horrified face was the last thing he saw before darkness engulfed him.

At least this was what he remembered last.

He fell from a helicopter flying some thousand feet over the ground, just because he hadn't mind putting on his safety belt. Basically, he should be drop dead. But for him to be dead his head definitely hurt way too much.

Groaning he opened his eyes and touched his throbbing head. It was bandaged.

Slowly he took in his surroundings. He was in a windowless, rather big but low room. It had a sturdy looking trap door in its ceiling with a small iron ladder in the wall. The room had futons, blankets, food and water stocks and probably other small necessities in large boxes.

He himself was laying on a futon near the wall with a thick blanket around him. The room seemed rather cold.

A small wireless lamp was sitting above his head illuminating the room into cold light.

Opposite his futon and the lamp, a young man being engulfed in a blanket sat on another futon, leaning against the wall. With his eyes closed and head tilted to the side slightly he seemed asleep. But a loaded hand gun lay next to his hand.

Even though there were no special signs, no way to tell the difference between a human and a vampire, just by looking at him Itachi knew the young man was a vampire. One from the helicopter they had been pursuing. They had a special aura around them, always making the hair on his neck stand up.

And he had already met this one as the troop he accompanied was assaulted three weeks before. He was the one who took, well, stole his blood. Not that he remembered much.

Itachi looked to the side. There his gun and other things he had with him had been laid out neatly. Slowly he made to grab for his gun.

"Stop that, you think I threw myself out of a helicopter flying hell knows how high, saving your ass from going 'splat' on the ground and then even bandaging your head, just to have a hole put through mine?"

Slowly Itachi looked up. Soft, sapphire blue eyes framed by long lashes gave him a somewhat tired, irritated look. The vampires' hair was a dark brown, nearly black and tied into a ponytail. Some loose strands were framing a handsome face with a delicate nose and chin, full lower lip and slightly arched brows. His skin is not as pale as most vampires but not too tanned either; he seemed to work outside regularly. Even with the blanket around him Itachi could guess his slender build, for someone doing hard work he wasn't muscled enough. To summarize, he looked rather feminine and weak at first sight, but with a stubborn streak.

"If I had wanted you dead I wouldn't have bothered. You are safe around me, Uchiha Itachi."

Itachi took his gun, the vampires eyes never leaving his, and sat up slowly leaning himself up against the wall just like his companion and laying the gun next to him.

"What about my men?"

"You needn't worry, they should be fine. I have to apologize, we didn't intend to hit you. It was an accident."

Itachi slowly nodded, so they had just wanted to make their escape. If what the man said was true. He had a nice enough voice and it gave away no signs of a lie, just like his calm face. But he could be a good liar.

"Where are we?"

"We are in Nisshin, close to Nagoya. This room was prepared by my men after Aichi was attacked. It's a basis for our troops during missions."

"Are we alone then?"

"Yes, my men got the order to move back to our city."

Itachi was deep in thought by now. He said city, which meant their hide out might be bigger and have more people than they had thought. This prepared room was as much evidence for his theory as the amount of blood they had stolen these last months. Either this man was stupid for revealing as much information or he had some superior motive. The vampires eyes seemed alert as he watched the human intently, so probably the latter.

"What do you plan on doing with me now?"

The vampire crossed his arms and cocked his head slightly.

"Nothing. Nothing but to ensure your survival. You're a good enough commander to openly fight reapers, as are the men of your city. We seem to have similar goals and how's the saying 'my enemy's enemy is my friend'."

The _nothing_ seemed to be a try to make new alliances.

"Similar goals? Which would that be?"

"To survive this and to get rid of the Reapers."

Speaking about straight to the point. His words seemed well placed, giving just enough information to keep the conversation going.

"And those are the reasons you saved me?"

"They have a part in my actions, yes. And it was partly our fault that you fell, besides why would I just watch another men fall to his death if I could save him."

A vampire with morality, that one was knew to him.

"And who are you and where are you from?"

The other man hesitated, probably debating on how much was safe to reveal. So he really wasn't as naive as he might look on first impression, but also not as calculative and smart as Itachi had thought.

"I'm Tomoya Shuichi, commander and one of the leading heads in our city."

He was someone high ranked then. And he actually risked his live for him?

"Then Tomoya-san, are you sure you should have risked your live for me? If you are that important for your city I don't think your people would be very thrilled to hear that, mind that they might meet some difficult situations without you there to help them. Quite reckless, I have to say."

Shuichi rubbed his head in hold back shame, turning slightly pink. Apparently he hadn't thought about it this way as he made his decision (not that he had much time to decide) and now felt embarrassed in front of the human commander.

Itachi wanted to smirk in triumph, but kept his face blank. Shuichi didn't seem to be stupid but he had had not much experience in leadership. Which didn't surprise him, he seemed no older than Sasuke.

"Are you scolding me now or what? Shouldn't you be grateful I did it? I'm pleasantly surprised though. I had believed you would be hissing and spitting at me as soon as you woke up. And please, call me Shuichi and stop with the –san. We are still 'enemies', but let's agree on a truce for now. Itachi shook his head in hold back amusement, so now they were enemies again. Somehow he liked the man. It felt easy talking to him. And perhaps he hit his head harder than was good for him.

"I may not like your people very much, with a good reason. But such childish antics probably wouldn't help my case right now."

Shuichi nodded slowly.

"Well, you are just as calculative thinking as I heard. I ensure you though, that you and your people have nothing to fear of mine."

Itachi raised an eye brown at that. He could very well decide this for himself. And those constant assaults on their troops didn't put them in a good light.

"You said you're one of your cities heads."

Shu shook his head before Itachi could continue his question.

"Would you mind waiting till tomorrow before peppering me with any more questions, I _might_ answer them then. It's already way past midnight and I would like to get some sleep before setting off. But you won't need to ask me about my position in the city anyway. Because that's where we are heading to."

Itachi wondered about that.

"We are? And you believe I will just tag along?"

Shu glared at him. He wanted to sleep for god's sake.

"Look, my city is closer than yours. I don't want to wander through the death zone any longer than necessary. Wandering alone would be somewhat too dangerous, even if I know about places to stay at night. And I don't trust your people not to shot me on sight. You will have to trust me about your safety though. It seems you got no other choice but to tag along."

What he said seemed true enough, partly. Itachi still had his doubt. The change in Shuichi's way of speaking alerted him to some extent. He was trying to avoid further questioning.

"What are your plans with me, if we reach your city?"

Now Shuichi looked hurt.

"Didn't I answer that one already? You're not a prisoner or something around the line. We will bring you back to your own city and forget about the whole ordeal. Besides, didn't you want to know more about the vampire's city anyway, or why did you pursue us? Probably not to take back the blood."

And there his smart streak popped up again. Was his changing mood from stoic, formal commander to emotional, bustling youth part of a tactic? His brother did that sometimes to annoy him. It did indeed manage to puzzle the human about the vampires extent of craftiness.

"But I won't force you; you have till sunrise to decide."

And this was as far as Itachi could push the vampire for answers.

Shuichi turned around and laid down on his futon, pulling the blankets around him again. Apparently he now felt save enough to sleep around the human.

Itachi did the same. Shuichi was right, finding their hideout was his original mission. He wouldn't get a better opportunity. Still, he feared the vampire commander might not be more experienced and sly as he let on and have some plan up his sleeve. He needed to think this through very carefully.


	3. Day One

Chapter 2

Itachi woke up some hours later. A look at his wrist watch told him that it was shortly before sunrise. He looked up to where the vampire was, still deeply asleep. He didn't think it to be very wise, being so careless with your enemy sleeping in the same room. Itachi probably only slept through because of his injury. Otherwise he surely wouldn't have felt safe with a vampire near him.

Getting up quietly he slowly started packing his things together. He checked his weapons and munition and redid the bandage on his head. Only now did he notice that he had a laceration on the back of his head, which was already stitched up. He looked back at the sleeping vampire. He really must have hit his head hard, if he didn't notice someone penetrating his scalp with a needle. He was really sensitive in this spot. Actually his head was still throbbing.

A water bottle and a package of pain killers had been laid next to the futon. He took one of the pills and put the rest into one of his jackets pockets.

Since he didn't have the fitting equipment for this sort of situation, he searched around the room for things he could use, like a backpack, food and water rations. He found everything easily. Just one thing he hadn't found yet: a radio set. He wondered if Shuichi had one. He should, but perhaps it got lost as he got him here. Or he had a reason to hide it.

Suddenly he threw over one of the boxes accidently. His coordination was a little out of order, probably because of the hit on his head. The sound of the box hitting the ground woke up a startled Shuichi. He grabbed for his handgun, looked around and sighed as he saw the human picking up the fallen box. Laying down his gun he stood up groaning.

"You could have woken me earlier." The sun was already up by now.

"I know."

Itachi continued searching through the last boxes. Shuichi yawned, the upcoming journey seemed very promising, note the irony. He stood up grabbing some things from the food stored in his back pack for their breakfast. His belongings were mostly packed up and he had everything necessary already with him from the live pack he grabbed before jumping out the helicopter.

Itachi soon joined him, sitting cross leg on the ground. He eyed Shuichi's meal with thought; he had Onigiri with him, which looked fresh made.

"Where did you get the Onigiri from?"

Shuichi nearly choked on his bite, he barely kept back a small cough.

"You see a vampire eating normal food and instead of wondering why I don't drink blood, you simply ask where I got it from. You're the first then. That is, if this really is the first time you see a vampire eat?"

Itachi just kept staring at the vampire silently. Shuichi shifted around nervously for some moments, before sighing in defeat and shoving the box with Onigiri over to the human. Trying to start a conversation didn't seem easy anymore.

"We always pack some sort of live packs with fresh food for each mission. One for every person that is taking part and independent from the approximate time the mission will take."

That was the commander talking, Itachi liked that one better. It was more predictable. He nodded and took an Onigiri. He approved their way of preparing for the worst at any time. And it didn't surprise him seeing Shuichi eat normal food. He knew that vampires only needed the blood to restore their own, not working blood cells. Vampires 'only' had an illness of their bone marrow; their body isn't producing enough working blood cells on its own for them to survive. It had something to do with the hemoglobin in them. So they still needed to eat other food to gain energy.

"Say, don't you have any radio sets around here or with you?"

Shuichi gave him a somewhat regrettable smile. It would have been way easier for them to get out of the death zone if he had one.

"We don't have enough to equip any base with one. I had one with me, but unluckily it got destroyed."

He showed him the side of his back pack, where the radio set normally hung. It was reduced to some pieces hold together with cables. The back pack too had a rip in its side, which was stitched up.

"Did you get shot at?"

Shuichi nodded and grinned.

"Your men didn't seem very appealed by me jumping after you, but the bullet missed."

"I guess I have to apologize then."

It probably was Sai or the other guy who shot at him, neither his brother nor Kisame would have done it. He was surprised they had missed. Looking at the back pack it seemed like they hadn't, but Shuichi showed no signs of a shooting wound nor had he mentioned it.

"Is it possible that we might come over another hide out on our way, perhaps with a radio set in it?"

"Yes and no, if we keep up a good speed we will reach other bases every evening. We have many of them around this area. Unfortunately I can't remember any of them having a radio set. I know it would be way easier if we could just call a helicopter to pick us up, but it probably won't happen."

"Won't your people search for you?"

Shuichi shook his head.

"They're forbidden to do so. We need all our available people for some mission at least the next three days."

Itachi nodded in understanding, but didn't continue his questioning. He had the feeling he wouldn't be told about the suppose of this mission anyway. It might be another attack to gather blood.

They finished their breakfast in silence.

"Have you decided where you are heading to?"

"I guess I don't have much choice but to accompany you."

Shuichi nodded at that and stood up, shouldering his belongings and taking his hand gun. Itachi copied him. He climbed up the ladder and opened the lock, slowly pushing the heavy trap door open. Light flooded the room. They climbed up the rest of the way, rearranging their packs.

The building the room belonged to was completely destroyed. As Shuichi closed the trap door again Itachi could see a bright yellow cross on its outside. He guessed it to be a mark for their bases, which was very important information. Looking around some more he slowly recognized the town. Shuichi already told him they were in Nisshin, but hearing and seeing the real thing are two completely different things.

"It was destroyed just a week ago. I was here, as it happened, trying to help."

They had started walking along the streets by now.

Shuichi looked somewhat sad, he was probably thinking about the people that died here. How he came to think of this, he didn't knew. Itachi had come to know vampires as cold and cruel, but there where exceptions for nearly everything. And he hadn't met that much vampires anyway and never under good circumstances. And perhaps the man was simply a good player.

In the light of the day he could have a better look at Shuichi. First of he noticed that the vampire was smaller than himself and more slender than he had thought. He was curious about how the vampires in this city would be and about Shuichi's character. He seemed simply human, a trade he had never noticed before in any vampire he met. But it could all be a fake too (as he already mentioned earlier on).

"Let's get out of here, this place creeps me out."

Shuichi turned right, skidding around junk and keeping a safe distance from the buildings, avoiding dark and small streets. Itachi knew why. He had often enough seen reapers jump out of buildings, grabbing a victim and be gone again, even with the sun shining.

Besides from the junk laying everywhere it looked peaceful. No stinking cars in the streets, no flashing lights and no loud noises. It was rather quiet, the air singing with birds voices and plants growing everywhere where once people had lived.

"How long will it take us to reach your city?"

"About five days, if we don't meet any trouble."

Itachi looked at Shuichi expectably, but the vampire didn't seem willing to tell any more. Apparently he didn't want him to know where they were heading to.

They continued on their way in silence. Shuichi was beginning to doubt his decision. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to take the human, who was actually still his enemy (they just had some sort of silent peace as of right now), to the city. The others would not be happy with him.

But they had to start making alliances someday. For one to ensure their survival and their life after this war like state was over. Hiding themselves from society wouldn't work out this time, after the reapers were gone (hopefully) the vampires would be the humans next main target.

He intended to prevent this. And which way would be better than convincing one of japans most famous, powerful and vampire hating families from their honesty and good will. Showing Itachi his city might very well change his opinion on vampires. It would be the first step of a long way, but it could also go deadly wrong. That all depended on how good he could show the vampires positive trades and on how Itachi would take it all up. The younger brother would have been way easier to convince, but also had less influence.

At midday they ate a cold meal near a small stream. With their walking speed they reached their destined town, Okasaki, a good time before sun down.

"All right, if I recall right the base should be somewhere on the outskirts of this town. We will part here and search for it separately."

He rummaged through his back pack and got out two small, short range radio headsets, giving one to Itachi. After turning them on and switching them onto the same frequency they parted, turning into opposite directions.

It took a while but Shuichi finally found the place. It was a small adjoining building to a bigger restaurant next to it. Probably it was once used to store food. Shuichi switch on the call button on his radio set.

"I found the place. It's on the south-east side of the town."

"All right."

Shuichi leaned back against the wall next to the door, enjoying the warmth of the sun. They were lucky they got into this situation in early autumn, instead of winter. It was still warm and the sun was shining longer.

It only took Itachi some minutes to find him. Shuichi took out his gun and stood by the door. Itachi got out a flashlight. Even though this was one of their bases, there was still a chance the reapers had gotten into it while there was no one there. The doors weren't locked so people needing shelter could get in any time. Luckily reapers were too stupid to us a door handle and the like. At least they didn't see it as necessary as long as there seemed to be no potential prey behind the doors. But better be safe than sorry.

Slowly Shuichi turned the handle and pushed the door open, Itachi screened the room with the flashlight. It was safe.

Together they walked in. Itachi locked the door behind them while Shuichi put his belongings near the next wall and light up their little lamp for the night. Even though it wasn't sun down yet, they were both tired and wouldn't need to go out today anymore. He laid out two of the futons stored here. The room was smaller than the one before, the adjoining door to the restaurant was sealed shut with many planks. Shuichi checked it before he sat down on his futon to join Itachi for their evening meal.

They both eyed the other warily, eating in an awkward silence. One thing had been bothering Itachi nearly the whole day now.

"Won't you need blood sometime? How do you intend to get it?"

Itachi wasn't willing on spending any of his own.

Shuichi swallowed the food he was chewing. He had wondered when that subject would come up.

"There's no need for you to worry. I will take care of that myself. And I don't feel any thirst for blood, you can sleep safely."

Itachi raised an eyebrow, telling Shuichi with his look that he wanted to know more. But Shuichi withstood it, staring right back. If the human had a question he would have to speak up this time. He was a vampire, no fortune teller. Besides, he didn't felt like having a conversation right now. He was tired and had tried stirring up a polite conversation often enough over the day. Apparently Itachi didn't like to talk while they were walking.

"I'm not sure if I can believe you, I never heard of a vampire having no blood thirst. But that aside for now, you avoided my original question."

He wasn't scared of being bitten from Shuichi. He believed him to have enough control over himself and even the story with having no blood thirst could be very well true. And if he had wanted his blood he could have taken it long before. It wouldn't make any sense for Shuichi to kill him now. But the problem stayed, Shuichi would need blood at least once in the five days their journey was supposed to take.

The vampire shrugged his shoulders, too tired to argue now.

"I guess I could catch an animal if it is really necessary, there are enough rabbits around here. The problem is that I can't tell when I actually need to take real blood, only when the blood loss is showing in symptoms, like being dizzy. For now I got these, they should be enough."

He held up small glass bottle filled with red/white capsules. Itachi took the bottle from Shuichi, looking it over. There was nothing written on it.

"What are those?"

"Blood pills."

Shuichi sounded somewhat proud, but again he wouldn't continue talking. Itachi glared at him as the silence grew, his mouth twitched. All right, Shuichi was as stubborn as his little brother, but with a calmer, superior attitude which irked him a lot.

"Are you going to tell on your own or do I need to pull the details out of you question by question? You were more talkative some hours before."

Shuichi sighed and rubbed his face. He felt quite tired suddenly.

"There is hemoglobin produced from modified algae in them. If you don't mind I would like to tell you the rest another time. We should rest while we can."

Itachi nodded reluctantly. He didn't like this game of having his interest spiked up and then being told 'another time'. Hadn't the vampire said something similar the day before? He would have liked to know more about those blood pills. At least he still had some days to find out more.

As he crawled under his blanket Shuichi was already asleep. For a vampire he didn't seem to have much stamina.


	4. Day Two

**AN**: I have been changing this story around a little. So this is a new version. Enjoy reading

Note, the Shuichi in this story is **not** Uchiha Shuichi, but my very own character.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto chracters.

* * *

Again he woke up before dawn; it was a habit of his.

Shuichi was still deep asleep, so the human stood up quietly and readied their breakfast, using the food stored in this room. He even found apples and small cacao packages. Which meant these places must be either used quite often or taken care of regularly.

By the time he was done the sun should have just reached the horizon. Regardless, the vampire was still asleep.

Itachi frowned. He would have thought the other man to be more alert, seeing their situation and his position with the other vampires. But with his careless behavior he seemed more like someone still green behind their ears. It was too early for them to trust each other to this extend.

Deciding to wake him, he walked over and carefully nudged the sleeping form with his foot. Not sure if he wanted to know what a startled vampire might do. Kisame tended to hit whoever dared wake him.

"Hey, get up."

Still getting no reaction after some more nudges a severely irritated Itachi kneeled down and shook Shuichi's shoulder, hard. He had a good portion of patience, but it was running thin.

"Get up already!"

The vampire stirred and lazily swung his arm into Itachi's direction, like he was some fly buzzing around his ear.

"What?"

His voice was hoarse and came out as a weak squeak. Furthermore, Itachi had noticed that Shuichi had sweat through his shirt the moment he touched his shoulder. Even though the rooms temperature was fairly cool to keep the food stored here in good shape.

"We need to get going. Are you all right?"

Shuichi looked at him questioningly till Itachi pointed at his sweat soaked shirt. Hurriedly he sat up and pulled on the rest of his clothes, not minding his damp night shift. He glared at the ground and his voice came out sharper than he intended.

"It's fine. Just a bad dream I guess. I'm not very fond of being surrounded by reapers."

Itachi nodded curtly and moved back, giving the young commander some room. It hadn't crossed him yet that Shuichi might have any objections to their journey. Thought it was his own responsibility that he had saved him and that they now were stuck in the death zone together. If he didn't like being here with him he shouldn't have bothered. Not that Itachi was happy about their situation either, but at least he had enough control not to show as much.

They had a quiet meal and left their nights shelter in silence. The silence kept with them till they decided to take a rest around noon and have another meal.

Itachi was at a loss. Yesterday Shuichi had often tried to spike up a conversation with him. Since he didn't like talking while he was walking for a longer time span he had kept rather quiet. He didn't want to waste his breath nor did he want to give away the information Shuichi was asking for. Even though his questions were harmless enough and not looking for military information or the sort, he wasn't ready to share his life with this stranger who was supposed to be his enemy.

But today Shuichi had kept quiet. On one side it was rather nice not being thrown into the awkward situation that developed when people tried to stir up a nice conversation even if they clearly loathed the person next to them. On the other side it got him thoughtful. He had judged Shuichi as a person who talks no matter if his opposite wants to hear anything or not. And he had noticed unmistakably signs of exhaustion in the younger men. Perhaps he was ill or injured. Or he needed blood.

Whatever the cause of his quietness and apparently bad mood, he would have to keep a close eye on his companion tonight.

Over the meal Shuichi's mood seemed to change. Probably because of the big tomcat that decided to grace them with its presence. It had rolled itself up on Shuichi's lap purring loudly while being petted. Perhaps Itachi could tease the vampire a little to get a conversation rolling. He hoped he had the man's measure right, that he wouldn't be resentful about it. Besides, it would catch him of guard because normally Itachi wasn't the person to tease others. He might open up more if the human played his role good enough.

"Have you gotten thirsty all of a sudden?" Itachi pointed at the cat.

Shuichi glared at him but saw the familiar glint of mischief in Itachi's coal black eyes and realized he was bantered with. He wasn't that surprised about it, just because Itachi had the reputation of a stoic, calculative personality doesn't mean he couldn't be funny sometimes.

"Let me care about my problems as vampire myself and I won't tell your comrades that you can actually pull a joke. They would probably faint on the spot, poor guys."

Itachi grinned.

"Yeah, better not. My father would throw a tantrum."

He wouldn't admit it openly but jollying around with Shuichi _is_ fun. In the past he did so with Sasuke and his cousin. Nowadays he only shared small and not as carefree jokes with Kisame or someone else of his friends at the most. It seemed to be true that people are more likely to open up to a complete stranger rather than a friend. Not that he would let it interfere with anything else.

"Well, no one's perfect."

Itachi nodded, he knew he wasn't perfect even if his father wished him to be. Given the situation anything can be turned into a weakness or fortitude.

Since the mood was quite relaxed now Itachi dared prodding the vampire for some information.

"You said you had been there as the reapers attacked Aichi? What exactly happened there? I only heard of the assault the next day but we couldn't find out yet what the cause had been."

He didn't say that his father's people believed it to be the work of Shuichi's vampires. Shuichi sighed and leaned back against the stump of the tree they were sitting under.

"Well, we got the information of the assault nearly right away and I send a small unit to take care of the problem."

Itachi leaned back against a big boulder, crossing his arms. He cut off Shuichi's speech not wanting to let his current though go.

"How did you manage to get word so fast? Did you have spies there?"

Shuichi glared at him. He didn't like being interrupted.

"That's none of your business. May I continue my story?"

Itachi nodded solemnly. It seemed the vampire had lost his patience for today. Better to not interrupt him too often.

"All right, it was simply said that some reapers had found a way in and were raving havoc, but not much. So I only send a small squad to help our people that were already there. And don't ask why I had people there because I won't tell."

Itachi hadn't done as much as twitch yet, but he really had wanted to ask about that point too.

"About an hour later one of them shortly contacted us, blabbering about ripped down walls, reapers everywhere and humans trying to flee. But before we could find out anything meaningful the contact broke. We immediately took anyone available with us to go help, preparing for the worst."

Shuichi stopped for a moment to take a gulp from his water bottle before he continued in a quiet voice.

"And it was worse. The town looked like a battlefield. I had part of my troops secure a building and then helped another troop bringing people into safety. Those who could still fight did so and helped us not caring at all about us being vampires. A third troop was trying to clean out as much reapers as possible. It would have worked out quite fine, but for this one reaper who started all this shit, a TR."

"TR?"

He had to ask, since he had never heard the like. Luckily Shuichi didn't seem to mind this time.

"A 'Thinking Reaper'. They are mostly newly transformed reapers who can still think, act like a normal person and use their vampire skills. Luckily they're pretty rare."

Itachi nodded. They had come over such reapers occasionally. It never ended well.

"We had interrogated the survivors and they did tell about you helping them, and that you took an awful lot of people with you."

Shuichi peered up at Itachi from his bangs. He knew he should be angry about the hidden accusation but he couldn't.

"The people we took with us were infected with the virus from being bitten by reapers, thus would transmute into vampires. Why should we have left them there?"

"Aha, what about the TR?"

The subject was rapidly changed back but the mood was still strained.

"This one was female and apparently quite angry with the people of Aichi. We managed to kill her, but with great effort and losses. I found out later that she had survived a reaper attack and fled back to the city. But they threw her out since she had been bitten. How she came to survive again and turn up as a reaper I don't know. But those things are void of any emotions but hate and anger. Well, I would have been angry too if I was kicked out for the reapers to feast on."

Shuichi threw a sidelong glare at the human commander. Throwing vampires out of the safety of a city was one way the humans got rid of them, beside simply killing or torturing. Uchiha Fugakus city was famous for their harsh methods, like using caught vampires as bait to lure out reapers.

Itachi returned the glare with one of his own. The topic had changed rapidly again. The cat noticing the anger in the air left them, tail daintily raised because its petting got interrupted.

"And what do you expect us to do? We have to think of the humans' safety first. Vampires are a danger to everyone living around them."

Shuichi snorted in disgust.

"Is this really you or your father speaking. Vampires or not, it is wrong. Your brother knows it and many other people with him. And I believe _you_ to be smart enough to know about it being wrong."

Itachi ground his teeth. Indeed he didn't approve his father's ways of dealing with vampires. They had no need torturing them and feeding them to reapers. A shoot to the head would be enough. But he would not discuss this matter with an outsider, a vampire at that, nor let this pup teach him in morality matters. Better to swallow his anger of being opposed so openly and try to back off from the subject.

"I don't believe it is necessary to discuss those matters. It won't change anything. We better get moving again."

Shuichi looked down and away. His emotions had gotten the better of him and he had destroyed the friendly mood from before. Even if his accusations were true and he knew before Itachi was aware of that facts he had opposed. He even embarrassed Itachi with them. And you don't go doing this if you want to make friends. As wrong as their actions may be, everyone makes mistakes. Better be quiet for the rest of the day, before his traitorous mouth gave way again.

The rest of the day the mood stayed tense. After they found their nights shelter they ate mostly in silence and went to sleep early.

Itachi had noticed Shuichi hardly touching his food, but didn't mention it. The vampire also seemed paler than before, but with colored cheeks. Itachi thought him to simply be exhausted from the walk. His body really looked like it hadn't much stamina. Perhaps he had a slight cold or fever. He would check up on him tomorrow, after the tension had lessened a bit. It wouldn't do if the vampire got severely ill.


	5. Day Three

It was in the middle of the night when he woke up. A look on his watch told him the time to be just past midnight. Curious about the reason he woke, Itachi took a cautious look around. Shuichi always let the lamp burn during night, so they could see in case a reaper got in.

The door and the walls looked as sturdy as before, and the feeling that woke him wasn't what he felt when being in danger. It was something else. Just like the times he was worried over his brother when he got ill.

He looked over to Shuichi. The man had rolled halfway of the futon onto his belly, the sheets tangled around him. Seeing a dark spot left on the futon Itachi stood up to take a closer look. A spot roughly the same size seemed to be on Shuichi's night shirt at his side.

The Uchiha glared at the vampires back. He knew what caused such spots on one's clothing. Besides he could see the bandages offprint against the shirt if he looked close enough. Apparently the man was injured and didn't think about informing him or asking for help. And help was what he needed dearly. It also explained his behavior the last days.

Itachi thought about waking Shuichi, but decided against it. If he had his measure right, Shuichi would need to be forced to accept the help. And forcing a sleeping man was way easier. He would have a look at that wound first and then decide about waking him.

Very slowly he turned the vampire onto his side for better access to the wound. His skin felt feverish. He probably had a fever then. Luckily Shuichi was a deep sleeper. Lifting the night shirt, Itachi could see the thick bandages around the upper torso. He must have changed them the times he went for a pee. This is why he took so long. They were soaked in liquid of a reddish yellow color. Already the human feared what he might find beneath them.

Not bothering to remove them carefully, they couldn't be used again anyway, Itachi took his belt knife and cut the bandages away, silently cursing as he got a first glimpse on the wound.

It was a shot wound on the vampire's ribcage, highly inflamed. It was all red and swollen and festering. The idiot was close to a sepsis and didn't mind telling him!

The wound needed to be cleaned ASAP. Shuichi probably missed a bullet fragment or some other piece, perhaps from the destroyed radio set. That he had to find, which would hurt.

But first he needed to cut open the wound again, for cleaning measures and better access to whatever fragment was still inside there. This would work better if the person wasn't squirming around, being afraid of the pain to come. Which meant he wouldn't wake Shuichi for this yet. He would wake up soon enough from the pain.

Seeing as Shuichi was a vampire, whose powers he didn't yet knew about, the act might be a little dangerous but with the man's weak state possible.

Assembling everything he needed, like disinfect, saline solution and other things, Itachi carefully moved to sit on Shuichi's hips keeping his body trapped and steadied between his legs. It would be easier to hold him down this way. He used a solution to sterilize his knife and a portable gas blower to heat it up. This would close of the blood vessels and keep the wound from bleeding too much.

With his free hand he held down Shuichi's shoulder and with one fast, accurate stroke he cut open the infected wound, throwing the knife away with the same movement to hold down Shuichi with both hands.

The vampire shoot up hissing in pain and now wide awake. He managed to roll onto his back, Itachi let him, but he couldn't throw of the man above him. It only took him a moment to identify his attacker to be Itachi as well as the reason of his pain and he felt embarrassed, but still cross.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Shuichi had stopped fighting, instead his pained voice sounded dangerously friendly.

"I could ask you the same. When had you planned on asking for help? The moment you faint, when we are attacked by reapers or when I woke up to your dead body? And don't try to tell me you had everything under control."

Shuichi closed his mouth again and avoided Itachi's stare. He had done a childish mistake, he knew that very well. But it was a dire mistake, because it wasn't only his life but Itachi's and everyone's of his city he would have endangered if he had died. To summarize, he felt ashamed.

Itachi moved of the younger men without a word, he wasn't the type to rub in another ones mistake again and again. Shuichi got the message.

Putting the lamp closer and turning it brighter, Itachi moved Shuichi into a better position and gave him a leather strap to bite on and towels to catch up the fluids. The vampire let him do so, only grabbing a pillow to have something to hold onto. He felt too exhausted to complain right now and Itachi would be careful enough.

Washing the wound with the saline solution and spreading it apart a little he searched for the lost fragment. What he found was a lengthily piece of plastic stuck between two bruised rips. He grabbed the fragment with a forceps, trying to free it. Shuichi shook a little, eyes pressed close leaking tears and biting down hard on the leather strap. A bullet wound hurt bad enough, an infected one was even worse. But otherwise he kept silent. Sasuke wouldn't have been as cooperative.

Finally he got a good grab on the piece and pulled it out. He cleaned the wound some more and bandaged it.

Shuichi silently took the antibiotic and pain killers Itachi gave him. He looked spent. Laying back down he went to sleep the moment his head hit the pillow. Itachi sighed; they wouldn't be moving anywhere today. They would have to spend another night in this hideout. At least it was properly equipped. The only thing missing was fresh blood. He would have to do something about that in the morning.

Standing up he put his own futon next to Shuichi's and wet a small towel with cool water, laying it over the vampire's forehead. The fever was still as prominent as before, it might even have risen.

The next day started with rain. It was only drizzling and the sun shone through the light clouds now and then, enough to keep the reapers in their hidey-holes. But it was still wet.

Nursing a vampire was the last thing Itachi thought he would be doing in his life. And, as much as it irked him, he needed the man. Roaming the death zone alone, not knowing if he would find a hideout for the night, was not an opinion (even if he thought himself capable to do so). He survived the fall and had planned to stay alive. For that he needed the vampire. He knew which direction to walk and where they would find shelter. The odds were better if he stayed. Not to mention the bonus of finding the location of the vampires hideout. Guessing Shuichi had a plan in hand so he wouldn't be able to tell about the exact location, he had to make his own plans to counter all possibilities.

Sitting in a rain shower waiting for those stupid rabbits to be caught in one of his sling traps was annoying, but it gave him time to think. Having heard that fresh blood helped a vampire to heal faster and being unwilling to share his own he decided to catch rabbits.

After some more time he had caught his third rabbit and deeming it enough for the moment, Itachi returned to their hideout with his still alive prey. He guessed Shuichi wouldn't want to bite down on them, he himself definitely wouldn't, so he cut the animals throat and collected the blood in a plastic bottle he had prepared beforehand with a none toxic solution against clogging. He had found it in their base and guessed the vampires used it for their blood raids.

Starting a fire in a small fire pit he had found near their building he skinned the rabbits and put them on an improvised spit over the slowly growing fire. The rain had already stopped, but he was still soaked to the bone. And it was already past noon.

He returned into their shelter, changed clothes and hung his own up to dry. This hideout was equipped with spare clothes. They fit quite nicely and were of a similar quality than his so he would keep them.

After changing he kneeled besides Shuichi. The vampire still looked spent, but his fever was down and the wound looked better. He had changed the bandage this morning. Hopefully they would be able to leave tomorrow, probably with a slower pace than the days before. Shuichi would know best which pace he could keep up and if they would reach the next hideout in time. At least he hoped so.

He carefully shook Shuichi's shoulder to wake him. The younger man groaned in protest, but opened his eyes. Itachi held the bottle of blood in front of his face, which made him groan again and bury his head in the pillow. Itachi raised an eyebrow.

"I had hoped for a more, well, delighted reaction."

Shuichi turned around again and sat up, making Itachi move back a little. The vampire grabbed for a water bottle next to him and took some sips, glaring at the bottle with blood in the other man's hand. He pointed at it with his water bottle.

"Would you drink that?"

Itachi looked at the bottle, thinking.

"I'm sorry if rabbit blood isn't to your taste, you'll have to deal with it for now."

Shuichi made a face.

"That's not what I meant. I meant, could you bear the taste of still warm, thick blood running down your throat?"

Having said it in this voice, Shuichi sounded like he was disgusted.

"Well, no. But I'm human…"

"And that is exactly my point! I told you on the first day, that I feel no thirst for blood. It tastes the same to me as it would to you or any other normal human. I'm not even able to differ between human blood and animal blood, which most vampires can do. I definitely don't like the taste of blood."

During the speech Itachi had sat back on his behind one arm propped on his knee and his hand supporting his head. He had never heard the like. It could be true, but still…

"That doesn't save you from having to drink this blood right now."

Having it pointed out, Shuichi realized the misery he got himself into. Talking his way out wouldn't work this time. He knew his blood pills weren't enough; he needed the real thing if they wanted to reach their next destination by tomorrow evening. He was simply too exhausted.

"All right, but just so you know, you're making me break my vow to not drink any blood unnecessary."

Itachi wanted to remember him whose fault it was they got into this situation and that drinking blood was indeed necessary, but kept quiet. Shuichi just needed to object some more to feel the better of losing the argument. Not that they argued much. Instead he held out the bottle for Shuichi to take.

Disgruntled, the vampire did so, uncapped the bottle, but didn't drink yet. Instead he glared at the man still sitting opposite of him and watching.

"I would like some privacy if you mind. The taste is sickening enough; I don't need you watching me trying to convince my stomach to not throw up anything I just loaded it with again."

Itachi couldn't hide his grin this time, but he did turn his back towards the now fuming vampire. He reminded him very much of Sasuke not wanting to take his medicine.

"Don't you go pouring the blood into the nearest flowerpot. Such an childish act wouldn't help our course any further."

Shuichi's voice sounded played solemnly as he answered.

"There are no flowerpots around, I fear."


	6. Day Four

The next day dawned bright and clear. The weather promised to be sunny, but none too hot.

Shuichi had slept most of the last day, the blood helped healing his wound and he now felt fit enough to start their journey again. Besides, staying any longer wouldn't be safe. The reapers already knew about them hiding in this building and had been trying to get in.

With the healing Shuichi's appetite returned and they had eaten most of the rabbits. The rest they took with them.

After an early start they mostly walked in silence again, but it was a peaceful silence. The pace was slower, but not by much. Being closer to the city now, Shuichi explained, there would be more hideouts on the way, but not all as well maintained as others. They might not reach the one he had originally planned, but they would be safe for the night in another one closer by.

"How come you neglected to tell me about your injury? It was one of my men who shoot at you, wasn't it?"

Shuichi cast a short look back at the human behind him and then watched the front again.

"Guess I don't like to moan about every problem I got. I had honestly thought it to be a small infection because I didn't clean the wound good enough. It never crossed my mind I might have missed a fragment. Besides, to be honest, at first I had no reason to think you would actually help me if I had asked. No offense."

Itachi shook his head in wonder, thought Shuichi couldn't see him.

"That's silly. I might have hated you with all I had, but it wouldn't have changed the fact that I have a higher chance of getting out of here with you alive and healthy, enough to make me help you."

They left it at that and continued their way along the now mountainous terrain.

Around noon they decided to rest on the outskirts of a smaller village, eating what they had left from the rabbits. As Shuichi had predicted, they wouldn't make it in time to the hideout he had wanted to stay at. But they would reach another one long before nightfall, giving them time to explore the area for possible sources of food. The hideouts had food stored, but it wouldn't hurt to go easy on those stores and use the time they had to find their own.

Together they skimmed through the village in search for a store or restaurant and finally found a bigger, promising store on the other side. The big glass windows were broken and the sun stood just at the right angle to lighten up the inside with its rows of passages. Some darker passages were leading deeper into the building. They would keep well away from those.

To be on the safe side they readied their handguns and entered quietly. Parting they searched the different passages for fast and easy food. Shuichi found some instant noodle soups, other fast food and a small, light pot to cook water in. Itachi had found rice, some bottles of juice and was debating about which tea Shuichi would like, when they both heard a noise from one of the adjoining corridors.

Shuichi let the potato chips he had in one hand fall and pointed the gun towards the corridor near him. Itachi was behind him just some seconds later, having guessed were Shuichi might be and moving quietly. Luckily they hadn't been far apart.

There in the dim light a reaper slowly approached them. They could see movement behind this one and guessed there to be more of them. It stopped just inches from the sun lit room, his skin already smoking but not yet burning, apparently the pain didn't matter to it.

It looked to be male. Remains of ripped, dirty clothing hung from its slim, hunkered form, only partly covering his ash gray skin. He had no shoes and his head was nearly bald, his nails long and sharp. His clear yellow eyes formed to slits as he hissed at them, revealing his razor sharp fangs.

As fast as it came, it vanished again into the depths of the building. Taking no further risks both men slowly walked backwards and out of the building, never tacking their eyes from the dark corridors. They had what they wanted and continued on their way.

"How much do you know of them, the reapers I mean? I think it would be wise to share information on that point."

Shuichi smiled ruefully at Itachi's question. He knew he was prodded for information, because the humans knew as little as nothing about reapers. And some things they might not want to hear.

"With sharing information you would rather mean me giving the information, wouldn't you?"

Itachi bit back an unnecessary remark.

"We had other things on our mind and not enough time to throughout investigate them. We did try."

It sounded like an excuse and it was. They couldn't find out much about reapers. Most institutions who tried were soon overrun. Surviving was becoming more important. Even if more knowledge about their problem would have helped a lot, they weren't able to gain any.

Shuichi nodded in understanding, they had the same problems at first. He was debating on what to reveal. There was important information they found and hadn't thought about sharing with the humans yet. Most people of his city believed it wouldn't change anything if the other cities knew and that it might even worsen the vampires' situation.

He had believed the humans would find out on their own really fast, but it never happened.

He might take a risk sharing, but it was time to make a step into the direction of working together.

"Well, there are some things I think you should be told."

Nervously, he put a lose strand of hair behind his ear, trying to clear his head. He was entering foggy area.

"First of, you know that only vampires transmute into reapers and bitten humans only transmute into vampires, don't you?"

Itachi nodded, they had found that one out on the way.

"And sometimes by reaper abducted humans are seen again alive, but as vampires. What had you thought the reason to be?"

Now Itachi frowned, not exactly seeing the sense in this question.

"Well, I can't remember any case like that, but obviously they managed to flee and survived. What's the sense of this question?"

"Sorry, that really sounded stupid. I actually meant, why did you humans never really searched for abducted humans?"

Itachi's frown deepened.

"Are you making sense yet?"

Shuichi glared.

"Just answer."

The human couldn't get the meaning of these silly questions. But sighing, he got along.

"_Obviously_, we thought them to be dead."

"And you never got the idea their still alive?"

Now it sounded like an accusation.

"We hadn't believed the reapers smart enough to collect a living supply of blood. Or do you mean searching for people that might have managed to flee? The chances of someone surviving an attack are too low to risk any more people in a useless search. I know it sounds harsh, but it is as it is. If it was my brother abducted I would feel obliged to try saving him too, but I know the facts, so accusations won't work here."

Shuichi held his hands up in defense.

"I wasn't trying to accuse you of anything. Really, I wasn't. There's no way you could have known of anything like this."

Well, they _could_ have found out earlier, _if _they had tried harder. But telling the human so now wouldn't benefit his course.

Slowly but surely Itachi was losing his patience.

"Would you stop talking around the problem and just get your point straight?"

"Reapers can't eat human blood."

There, he said it. It couldn't get any straighter.

Itachi stopped dead in his tracks. Crossing his arms he threw a doubtful look towards Shuichi, who had turned around to regard him with his own stubborn gaze.

"Are you trying to fool me? I saw with my own eyes humans being attacked and abducted by reapers. I saw them being killed by them. Why should they do this, if human blood wasn't what they wanted?"

"Those people you saw being killed, they were probably vampires and if not then they weren't killed on purpose. Have you ever actually seen a reaper drink blood from a person you were sure to be human and not a vampire?"

Itachi shook his head in no and sat down on a nearby boulder. Shuichi got a boulder of his own. They could already see their next stay in the distance.

"Care to explain? Perhaps I will believe you."

Shuichi glared at his feet. He had a feeling Itachi got an idea about where this was going and he didn't like it as much as the other.

"Most of my people are vampires. This is how we actually found out about it. Some of those we found along the way were telling the same tale: they had been abducted and then been kept underground together with many other people. All of them had been bitten, but the reapers never touched them, only kept them from fleeing; till one of them had transmuted into a vampire. The moment this happened the reapers killed the person, practically ripping them apart, and drinking the blood. So we came to think that the reapers can't or don't want to drink human blood, but only vampire blood. So they abduct humans, bite them, and wait till they transmute into vampires."

During his speech he had neglected to look up, he did so now. The look in Itachi's eyes was thoughtful but otherwise unreadable. They kept quiet for the longest of times. Shuichi felt uneasy. He had just told the human that those people they had believed dead where actually alive, living through horrors and fear, knowing what was to come, before being ripped apart. It was a hard slap to the face. They could have saved so many.

"Do you have further proof?"

Itachi's voice didn't betray his inner turmoil. It was such a horrendous image, it felt unreal.

"We too couldn't believe it at first. We didn't want to believe it. But then we went to search for the abducted people after an attack. And we found them, just like those survivors had described."

"How long did you people know about this?"

It was hard to sound steady, as Itachi imagined the many friends he could have had saved if they had this knowledge. Shuichi could understand the accusation in these words, and he didn't blame him.

"About half a year, but think about it before you accuse us of anything because we hadn't told you yet. What would you have done with those people, who would have become vampires?"

He did think about it now. Having been able to save friends would have been nice, but would it really have been a saving? His people killed vampires. They killed comrades that turned into vampires or threw them out of the city before. Why should his people have risked their lives for those comrades? His father wouldn't have cared. Most of the people wouldn't have cared unless it was a really close friend or family member. Knowing wouldn't have _changed_ anything.

Reviving these facts managed to calm the human down to some extent. He still would have to gnaw on the fact that they turned their backs on comrades, even unknowingly. They could at least have them put out of their misery instead of help feeding those monsters.

Together they stood up and continued on their way.

"Have you made use of this information?"

It seemed sensible that Shuichi's people, which where vampires themselves, would help those 'would be' vampires.

"After every reaper attack we heard about I had teams search for those abducted people. Those reapers can't get far with them so we managed to save an awful lot. But sometimes we're still too late."

Itachi nodded. You can't be everywhere any time. In his head he was counting and recounting the towns attacked in this area and the rough numbers of people that went missing. Depending on how many of those people they managed to safe, there should be an _awful_ lot of vampires living in Shuichi's city, far more than they had ever imagined. This would of course explain their constant assaults on the human troops and the care not to kill anyone. They would shovel their own grave if they did. Trying to find another, artificial source of blood was of course most sensible. He hadn't forgotten about those blood pills. He would have to ask about those again on another occasion.

For the rest of the way and the evening, they reached their day's destination in good time, they kept mostly silent besides some small talk about trivial things. Both were tired, Itachi from thinking and planning and Shuichi from the after effects of his injury. They went to bed shortly after dusk, planning to rise early to continue their journey by the first rays of the sun.


	7. Day Five

Like they had planned, Shuichi and Itachi left their nights shelter with the sun barely up. It was even warmer than the day before, the air hot and humid. There might be a thunderstorm later on so they would need to be on alert. The reapers might decide to leave their hidey-holes with the sun gone and enough rain.

They didn't talk much over breakfast and Shuichi didn't tried stirring up a conversation while they were walking. He was still jumpy, not being sure of the humans' reaction to their previous talk about reapers. As a vampire he had learned really fast that humans would blame him to have caused something, even with clear evidence against it and them knowing it to be not true. But Itachi gave no indications that he might be cross. In fact, he was thinking of asking about some friends and acquaintances they had lost during reaper attacks. Those people might be still alive and living in Shuichi's city. He wouldn't mind having a talk with them, if just to see if transmuting into vampires had changed their personality.

"Say, about those blood pills, are they good enough to completely replace real blood?"

Shuichi shook his head.

"They are still not perfect. The hemoglobin is slightly different and thus harder to be absorbed for our bodies than the real thing, and the algae produce a byproduct which is making some people ill if too much is consumed. Sadly we don't have the technique to produce better hemoglobin or clean it properly from any byproducts."

Of course it wasn't easy to build up a proper research in this situation.

"Do you have any other approaches on the problem?"

If the vampires had some medicine or the like to keep them alive they wouldn't need to hunt humans. This had been thought of even before the Reaper Outbreak but the people in charge didn't get enough money nor the allowance by the government to help the vampires. At that time the society didn't want to integrate vampires as a minority into their live. They were outlawed.

"We are trying something with stem cell research but haven't come far yet."

"Perhaps we could help you out if you gave us a summary of your findings so far."

Sasori would be delighted to the challenge, he was constantly complaining about not being able to do something useful, besides shooting at reapers and solving logistic problems. And it would give them a measure about the vampire's sources in research. They might make use of it.

Inwardly, Itachi shook his head in wonder. They were hardly together for five days and he already thought about making alliances instead of finding the vampires den and think of a plan to get rid of them all at once. He needed to let his head get checked when he got back, _if_ he would ever get back. Perhaps he was getting soft, may it be because of the constant strain on his body and mind from the fighting or Shuichi's doing. He didn't know about the vampires abilities yet. It might be a mind manipulating skill.

"I think we can manage something of the like. I would be glad to get some aid in this case. Feeding my people is becoming hard."

It would help a lot if they could stop with the assaults on the humans. You can't make an alliance with a city while continuing to assault their people. The need for blood was a major obstacle.

"It sounds like you have an awful lot of vampires to look after."

Itachi's voice faked innocence. He really would like to get a grasp on the rough number of vampires under Shuichi's guidance. It would help to decree how dangerous they might become in the near future. Even if his father already ruled them as to dangerous to ignore anymore and to be left alone, whatever their number, Itachi liked to get a grasp of his enemy's size before running head long into an attack. In fact, his father had become quite hasty with his decisions the last months.

"Enough to make your father faint in shock and you to reconsider leaving me alive, not that it would help you if I'm dead. So I won't be telling you yet."

That was what Itachi had feared. Even if Shuichi's voice held a playful tone he knew it to be the truth, and since he could hardly do anything about it now he wouldn't think about it anymore. It would give him headaches again and he was tired of them. He could always think of a plan later on, if one was needed.

Near midday the came across one of the many streams in this area near a small village and decided to take a rest on a sturdy bridge crossing it. They could cook a decent meal with the food they found the day before. Itachi readied a fire pit while Shuichi searched for more firewood. They could cook enough for the evening while they were at it.

As Shuichi came back he not only carried enough wood in a string but also some towels as well as shampoo and shower gel. He must have gotten those from one of the houses nearby.

"You're taking a bath?"

The stream was big and deep enough to even swim in it for a short distance.

"My hair is greasy and I reek of sweat, I badly need a good wash. And you too, by the way."

Well, they were both dirty after traveling for days and their two shifts of clothes could need a wash too. Before they hadn't had the time or chance to do so.

After setting up their meal to cook, Itachi joined Shuichi on the riverbank. Already the vampire was shirtless and started removing his pants. Itachi caught himself staring. As he took care of Shuichi's wound, which was now hidden by a water proof patch, he had gotten a glimpse of his tattoos. On his right shoulder blade there was a black, stalking wolf with blue eyes together with the Kanji for 'spirit'. On the left shoulder blade sat its mirror twin, a demon wolf with wings, red eyes and fangs bared with the kanji for 'demon'. The rest of his back was occupied by a big, four legged and blue dragon, its wings partly outstretched, head in between the two wolves and tail winding itself around Shuichi's lower back and hip. Its kanji read 'strength'. A wild looking, rearing black horse on his left calf had the kanji for 'freedom'.

By now Shuichi was naked and jumped into the river, diving under water and coming up again with a yelp. The water was cold. He turned around to regard the human still on the riverbank. Now Itachi could better see the snake wound around his upper right arm with the kanji for 'wisdom'. Shuichi seemed to have a liking for kanjis, and for tattoos.

"Are you going to stand there gawping all day or are you coming in? You wanted to be clean, didn't you?"

He hadn't been gawping or ogling, well, perhaps a little. Pulling of the rest of his clothes he slowly descended into the river. It really was cold. Meanwhile Shuichi had grabbed the shampoo and shower gel and started scrubbing himself, rinsing his hair in the water. Itachi copied him.

"Your tattoos look good."

Shuichi was occupied washing his clothes but peeked at the human from under his bangs.

"Thanks."

Well, that felt awkward.

"How old are you? You never told."

Not much better. Why should it interest him? And why had he asked now of all times?

"I'm 21."

So he actually was as old as his brother.

"You have a girlfriend or boyfriend?"

He blinked. Shuichi stared up at him red faced before occupying himself with his clothes again. Itachi had honestly spoken his thoughts out loud. Was he drunk or something the like?

"Noooo, as of right now…not really. Well, there's hardly any time for this."

"Ah."

There wasn't anything more he could add. Itachi grabbed his clothes scrubbing them vigorously to keep himself from saying anymore weird things in this situation. If Uchihas could blush he would have been bright red by now.

Apparently Shuichi could blush, as Itachi noticed, he also noticed that he wasn't corrected on asking about a boyfriend. So Shuichi might as well be gay, or bi.

Which of course shouldn't be of interest for him in the least.

Luckily Shuichi decided to safe him and break the awkward silence.

"You know this isn't a good idea. I mean a vampire and a human, both male at that. Your father will have a heart attack, one part of my fans would be trying to kill you and vice versa while the other will have a major nosebleed, the reapers would surely be killed by the vibrant love of such a romantic Romeo and Juliet love story; wait that's a good thing; it would start an all-out war raging over the whole world; though we already have that; my reputation would so go down the drain and I'm out of arguments against it."

Itachi hid a grin. Leave it to Shuichi ranting like an idiot just to lighten the mood. So far it worked out very well.

"You have a reputation?"

Shuichi's eyes lit up suddenly.

"I do. I'm the ultimate big brother to all the orphans we gave shelter. No idea how I managed to have enough time for them. _They_ would be after you like peasants after weeds, little twerps, and children can be cruel. No wonder I wasn't able to keep myself a lover for longer than two weeks."

"I pity them for not being able to keep you longer."

Splendid. Itachi wanted to slap himself. He wasn't here to flirt. Shuichi gave him the longest of stares.

"Well thank you. I'm taking that as a compliment. I think the rice should be done any moment now."

Together they climbed out of water, slinging towels around their bodies and hanging their clothes over the bridges rail to dry in the sun. They ate in odd silence sitting on the meadow above the stream.

Itachi couldn't keep himself from occasionally mustering Shuichi's body. He was slim but well-toned, though he should gain some more weight. He had some scars, probably from the constant fights with reapers and humans. Itachi had an assortment of his own. Meanwhile he caught Shuichi deep in though, glancing at him now and then, but otherwise not noticing Itachi's staring. He seemed to be debating with himself.

Soon enough they left, putting out the fire and storing the leftover food without any more embarrassing situations. The clothes weren't completely dry yet but they couldn't wait any longer and the day was warm.

It took them longer than expected to reach the next destination. Apparently an earthquake or strong rain had triggered a massive landslide lately. The road was blocked and they had to skip around the area because the "rubble" didn't look safe to climb over.

When they managed to reach the little town it was already evening; the sun would be down in less than an hour. Finding their supposed hideout on the outskirts of said town an even bigger problem did arise. The building before them was an old school with an adjoining gym hall, of which only the foundation walls were left standing. The yellow cross mark the door of a changing room , whose ceiling was broken in leaving them with no protection for the night.

"Well, _that_ is a problem." Itachi looked at Shuichi. "Your vampire powers wouldn't be of any help here, would they?"

He didn't know about Shuichi's powers, since he had never seen nor asked about them.

Shuichi just shook his head.

"Then, is there another hideout within reach? Or a possibility to go there faster like a car or bike?"

Again the vampire shook his head.

"I fear we have to search for another shelter, and fast. I might already have an idea."

Itachi followed Shuichi as he moved towards the school building. After some minutes searching they stopped in front of the janitors' closet. It was a small room stuffed with shelves filled to the brim; the door opened to the inside and was sturdy metal. Itachi checked the lock. It worked. To be safe they would shove some of the heavier shelves' in front of it.

"Not very big but it should do for the night."

Itachi nodded. Together they threw out some of the lighter shelves to make more room and build a small barrier outside the door. This would make it harder for the reapers to even reach the door, but not by much. After moving inside and closing the door they stuffed the slit beneath it with some dirty towels, heaved a heavy shelve before it and jammed a second shelve between it and the wall.

Safe for the night they sat down to eat in the light of Shuichi's small lamp. It was a very small room, even with most of the shelves gone. They would have to sleep right next to each other and since they had only found one ragged, but big, old blanket they would have to share it. Even if the day had been warm the nights already tended to become quite cold. No one of them wanted to freeze tonight.

Both used their spare clothes as makeshift pillows and laid down on their jackets with the ragged, weird smelling blanket over them. They fell asleep back to back.


	8. Day Six

As Itachi woke the next morning something felt differently than normal. First of all he seemed to have an early-morning hard-on. He had dreamed very well and was after all still just a man, who had manly needs. Which he wasn't able to take care of as of late.

The second thing he felt was a warm body pressed against his. Which didn't surprise as the room was really small. What surprised him was the position he found himself and Shuichi in as he opened his eyes.

They were facing each other, their legs intertwined. The younger male was cuddled up to his chest, while he had his arms around him. They were cuddling. And it didn't felt wrong at all, just weird. Actually Itachi hadn't slept this good in over a year and he would like to stay like this a while longer, but it wouldn't do for Shuichi to wake up and noticing his…problem. They needed to get up anyway, it was long after dawn.

Slowly he tried to untangle them, not getting very far as Shuichi stirred. Groaning Shuichi opened his eyes, he felt very comfortable but something made him wake up. His gaze immediately fell on Itachi and realizing how close they were he yelped, jolted upwards and back into the shelve behind him full force.

"Ouch."

Itachi only raised an eyebrow at his antics.

"Don't you think your reaction is a tad bit exaggerated?"

Shuichi rubbed his sour shoulder grimacing because of the pain.

"I got surprised, that's all. And shouldn't you worry more about _your_ little problem."

Itachi made a face. So he had noticed. Being this close there was no way he wouldn't have noticed.

"And what would you advise me to do then? I think the cold shower is out of question."

"Why ask me? I may be gay, but shouldn't you know how to take care of this sort of problems since puberty? So leave me out of it. I could just turn around and stuff my ears or you wait till it's gone on its own."

So Shuichi was gay. Well, the situation just became even weirder. And the vampire was cute when he was embarrassed enough to start babbling. If his morning problem alone could make Shuichi babble in embarrassment what would happen if he would go further. Not that he would. And he definitely shouldn't be imagining this right now. What the hell was wrong with him? Apparently a man could only go this far without any sexual activities before he would snap. He would need to manage something in this direction when he got back, before he would start making pretty eyes to one of his friends. The thought alone made his 'problem' vanish at once, thankfully.

"How about we start packing and pretend this morning never happened?"

Shuichi, now slightly pink, nodded in agreement. He had noticed his slip earlier.

They hurriedly packed, shoved away the shelves blocking the door and scrambled over the pile of rubbish they put in front of the room the day before. Clearly reapers had been here. Since it was already late they mutually agreed to do with some apples from a nearby apple tree for their breakfast while they walked.

"Say, I don't know why I didn't asked this earlier, what exactly are your vampire powers?"

They walked side by side, closely. Shuichi gazed at the older male through his bangs, his voice was mocking.

"And why would I tell my enemy."

"We're back to being enemy's, are we? I had a different impression this morning."

"Ditto." Shuichi let out a fake exasperated sigh. "I guess we do know each other good enough for such private information. Then telling is a sign of my trust. Besides, you would find out sooner or later anyway if we plan to stay friendly."

Itachi wondered where this theatric drama came from, but smiled.

"Does 'friendly' mean you will stop your assaults on our troops?"

"I fear we can't do that. Frankly, staying friendly would be of no use if my people all died. We will have to keep it a friendly secret for now."

Shuichi would be a good player, though the mischief in his beautiful blue eyes gave him away.

"Back to topic. And don't you die of an heart attack if I reveal my amazing supernatural powers. That won't do."

"I assure you, I'm hard to spook. My heart will be fine, unless you can do some sort of mind control."

Which would explain why he felt so fickle and needy regarding the younger male.

"None of those. I would have had a headache by now trying to manipulate you."

Itachi took that as a compliment.

"Well then, I have control over my tattoos."

Apparently Shuichi liked cliff hangers, because again he didn't continue his talk.

"Would you mind further explaining 'control'?"

"I can shape shift into them or even materialize them as individuals with an own mind."

Silence. Itachi remembered Shuichi's many tattoos. That was some useful power he had, _if_ it was being used.

"And why are we still walking while we could have ridden that horse or flown on your dragons back?"

"Ahh, that's the funny thing. See, lately I found out that if I'm constantly using my power to the point dropping and at the same time skip blood rations, I get some sort of burn out. In other words, if I even tried calling on my powers now I might faint on the spot."

Itachi looked at him critically.

"How come you are skipping on blood rations?"

"Well, we have a blood shortage. And I and other stronger vampires have been leaving out rations, so the others have more. Sadly, I forgot that since I'm in active service I do need a lot more blood than others and regularly. Shape shifting and the sort cost energy and since this whole war started I hardly had any time to rest. During the day I was minding the city affairs and most nights I was out grilling reapers."

Itachi knew what he meant. He himself was in and out of work, hardly able to catch up on sleep, if he had any.

"So how long does it take for you to recover?"

"The last time took about three week's paper work and I was back to normal. I got nearly mad being held inside the whole day, so this time I was allowed to accompany the raiding group. Which is the only reason I'm here now. Guess you can be happy that I broke down with a burn out again. Otherwise you would have been as flat as a pancake by now."

"I'm so happy to be on a trip through the death zone with my sworn enemy, words can't describe it."

"See, you do like me. You're even making fun."

"When will you be able to use your powers again this time?"

Shuichi shrugged his shoulders.

"Perhaps in about a week. I'm forbidden to try out on my own thought."

Itachi was thinking. With his powers Shuichi was a strong opponent, without he was nothing more than a young, human man, who probably wasn't trained for strength and the like because he didn't need those with his powers. He was vulnerable in this state.

Another though occurred to him.

"If you can't use your powers, how did you even save me from falling?"

He had always thought Shuichi would have used his vampire powers to save them from the fall. Now Shuichi turned red.

"Well, I _could_ use my powers to some extend right now, but I definitely shouldn't. Actually, I forgot about my burn out as I jumped out the heli. I called for my winged wolf tattoo and fainted the next moment. Luckily they can exist a great amount of time on their own and even better I woke up before dusk and we were already close to a hideout."

"Ah, then I should rather be thanking that wolf for saving me, shouldn't I?"

The vampire glared at him.

"That's why it is called a 'burn out'; my mind just wasn't working as good as normally at that moment. You're alive, what do you want more? "

"I'd better not answer that."

Shuichi 'tsk'ed and walked out in front of the other man. They had reached a small, steep and uneven downhill trail. It was a short cut through the woods. The forest wasn't very thick in this area. Light flooded through the trees and upon grassy clearings. Little streams were running besides them occasionally crossing the path.

Climbing down an especially cliffy, but not high, bluff they used the thick roots and branches to keep their balance and stay on the trail. A root, that moments ago was able to withstand Shuichi's weight abruptly snapped as Itachi leaned on it. His left foot slipped as he tumbled forward into the vampires back. Surprised Shuichi wasn't able to hold his footing and he too fell forward onto his knees and hands. Luckily they had reached the end of the bluff. He caught himself on his forearms groaning as the older male jammed into his back a second time.

"Get off, you're heavy."

"Sorry."

Itachi rolled of the younger male and sat down beside him. He had twisted his ankle during the fall and it hurt. Slowly Shuichi sat up and inspected the damage to his body. His forearms and hands were scratched by the broken rocks on the ground as were his knees, though not as bad. He needed to clean and bandage those scratches, less he gets another infection. He glanced at Itachi who carefully inspected an injured ankle but otherwise seemed intact, thanks to vampire cushioning.

"It's already near midday anyway. How about we eat here? You can get everything ready while I clean my wounds at the stream over there."

He pointed at the little cascade to their right. Itachi nodded in agreement and went to work. As he had set up the rice to cook Shuichi came back. Arms dripping wet he sat himself onto the stone next to human, trying to dry them on his clothes.

"Here, wait."

Itachi grabbed for the arm closest to him and carefully dried it with the clean spare shirt from his backpack. He then grabbed the disinfection salve and bandaged arm and hands, repeating the procedure with the second arm. Shuichi let him, bandaging himself would have been complicated.

"Thank you. Need help with your ankle? Is it bad?"

Itachi hesitated but finally put his foot out for Shuichi to take care of.

"It could be worse. Just a little sprain but I will manage."

Shuichi nodded as he tightly bandaged the ankle so the bandage would work as a support. His voice sounded humorous.

"Do I need to search for a crutch?"

Itachi murmured a nearly inaudible 'idiot' under his breath and took care of their rice, effectively ignoring Shuichi's snort of amusement as he removed his pants to bandage his scraped knees.

Soon enough their meal was ready. Eating in silence they enjoyed the warmth of the sun and the sound of nature around them. Near them was a big clearing. A group of Sika deer browse on the clearing near a stream. The adult ignored the two men, grading them as not dangerous, while the young ones made a game of walking close and then jumping away in alarm if they moved even a little. The youngest fawn soon lost his fear and boldly inspected the two bags, earning both men wary gazes from its mother.

"This isn't as bad as I thought it would be, this journey."

Itachi raised an eyebrow as he tried to seize back his belongings from the fawn. Had Shuichi hit his head during their fall earlier?

"I mean if you leave out the reapers and need to find a safe shelter for the night it's just like a normal hiking trip. We see nice places, get clean air and hear the soothing sound of nature. AND, no one nagging about a schedule or paperwork and the like to be done. No complaints or problems to be solved and nothing to worry about."

"If you put it that way then yes, it is refreshing."

Shuichi sighed.

"And it will all be over soon. The day after tomorrow will have us thrown back into the harsh reality of war."

"We're this close already?"

The vampire nodded. They watched the Sika deer a while longer. The fawn had returned to its mother. As they vanished back into the forest both men packed their things and continued on their way. Reaching their hideout just in time because of the now slower pace they soon went to sleep.


	9. Day Seven

Even if waking early was a known habit to his body this time he felt reluctant. It was warm and cozy inside his blanket, besides, there was no need for an early start today. No meetings, no missions, no fighting, no commanding unwilling humans and solving logistic problems, there was nothing to be done today but walk. It _was_ relaxing. Of course he still worried if his brother was save, if his friends were alright and if his city was still alive, but there was nothing he could do should they have problems. He couldn't get back any faster. According to his vampire companion they were close to their next, and last, stop before reaching the vampires city, but they wouldn't be able to reach the city today. Accepting this, he felt he deserved at least one lazy morning after all his hard work, Itachi turned around and went back to sleep.

Next he woke to a fresh breeze from the open door and the smell of breakfast. Itachi sat up, the futon next to him was empty. Normally they slept further away from each other. Last night Itachi had laid his futon right next to Shuichi's, with just enough space between them so they wouldn't end up cuddling again. He had done this without thinking much about it beforehand but since Shuichi didn't object he didn't change their sleeping arrangement.

Feeling groggily he put on clothes and soon joined Shuichi at a small fire. The vampire grinned up at Itachi as he let himself fall on the patch of grass before the building leaning his back against it and closing his eyes against the glaring sun.

"Feeling the effect of sleeping in when your body is trained to do otherwise?"

Itachi opened one eye to lightly glare at the younger male. He _was_ feeling weird.

"Honestly, you don't seem like your body has been trained in such matters."

Shuichi's grin didn't falter.

"My body _is_ trained on a wake up time, but it's later than yours and it's only a 'wake up' not a 'need to stand up now' time. I did that once and regretted it every time I was able to sleep in late. This groggy feeling will stick with you the whole day if you don't jump into a cold stream right away to wake you up."

He really didn't felt like jumping into cold streams or dumping cold water over him. Shuichi must have thought so too.

"Or you drink a tea, some people are fine with that."

Itachi opened his eyes fully now and moved a little closer to the small fire. Shuichi handed him a cup with tea. After another cup and breakfast he felt far better. Shuichi too had a cup. They enjoyed the morning sun in silence a while longer sitting close together.

"You feel better now?"

"Yeah, much better."

"And your ankle? I think we should renew the bandage now."

Itachi only nodded. As Shuichi went inside the building to retrieve fresh bandages Itachi removed the bandage from his foot. The swelling from yesterday was gone, the horse balm did work good, but the ankle still hurt if he put his foot down the wrong way. The vampire returned with more bandages than necessary and Itachi needed a moment to remember Shuichi's wounds from their fall yesterday. As Shuichi sat next to him again he took some of the bandages and the healing salve from him.

"I think we should have a look at your wounds first."

At first Shuichi wanted to object, but it would be silly. The scrapes on his arms and knees weren't deep but rather big and they hurt. His body was still weak after the infected bullet wound, another bad infection and he might be laid up for days. And he couldn't bandage his arms as good as another person could.

Still reluctant he let Itachi unravel the bandages around his arms. The scrapes were starting to heal, there was scab on them. Itachi carefully smeared more healing salve on the scrapes but didn't bandage Shuichi's arms. The wounds would heal better if they got some air, Shuichi would walk in a shirt today since it was warm so there would be no fabric rubbing against them.

Only his knees needed new bandages since both, human and vampire, preferred to wear long trousers here in the 'wild'. But to care for Shuichi's knees the vampire would have to remove his trousers now.

After he was done with his arms Itachi looked up at Shuichi expectant who only looked back confused.

"What?"

"Your pants are in the way."

That sounded weird and this early in the morning Shuichi needed an awkward moment before getting the real meaning of it.

"Ohh."

He stood up, the slightest hue of pink in his face, removed his pants and sat on a rock nearby. Itachi followed and sat back down in front of the vampire to care for his knees, a near invisible grin on his face.

"I take it you normally hear such remarks in, well…different situations?"

Shuichi's leg jerked as he withstood the urge to kick the pert human.

"If you want to ask about my sex life I will sadly have to tell you that I can't tell you. No sex or sex talk before the 5 date. It's the only rule I always stick to."

Itachi snorted, he had thought Shuichi to be a lover for one night stands. Seems he was wrong. He looked up at Shuichi after finishing the last bandage.

"This is our seventh day together."

Shuichi pulled his legs away and stood up to put his pants back on.

"But we aren't dating."

"True, sit back down I want to have a look at that bullet wound."

Shuichi stopped in the middle of pulling up the zipper. He had cared for the still remaining wound on his own the last days.

"Why now?"

"Because. Just to make sure it is _really_ healing as good as you say."

Shuichi let himself fall back onto the stone wall with a grunt, raising his arms.

"You don't trust me. I'm hurt, hurt I say."

Smiling, Itachi slowly shoved up Shuichi's shirt and carefully inspected the wound raising goose bumps on the younger male's skin. It looked well healed, further than a human's wound would be but not as far as he had thought.

"Are you done yet, your hands are cold."

Itachi blinked, and took his hands away letting Shuichi pull down his shirt again. He had let his hands linger on Shuichi's skin longer than necessary.

"Satisfied?"

They stood up and started putting away their breakfast and packing their things.

"The wound looks good so far, but I had thought it to heal faster."

Shuichi grimaced.

"I'm bad at healing."

"Ah." Well, that explains that.

They were nearly done packing as Shuichi remembered what he had gotten the bandage for that currently was in his hands.

"We still need to bandage your ankle again."

Itachi stood in the open doorway about to put down their bags at the wall as he remembered his hurting ankle. He had totally forgotten about it.

"Right."

He sat down on the low wall and let Shuichi care for his hurt foot. After shouldering their packs and closing the door to the hideout they walked out on the road again.

A little time after midday they sat at the roadside to eat before continuing on their way. Itachi didn't miss the none too subtle changes in the villages and houses they passed. The streets were mostly clean. Many houses had been ripped down. The shutters and doors of those still standing were barred with boards, but not as tight as that no humans couldn't get in anymore. He tested one of the doors. None of them showed signs of being broken, but some of the boards looked to be new.

"I'm not sure, but you do know that reapers can get into those houses and be a danger to your city and everyone else?"

Shuichi was walking in front of him. Now he turned around walking backwards as he talked with Itachi.

"We do. Your people are trying to rip down any building close enough to be considered dangerous. This takes very much time and energy considering you life in Osaka. We _did_ rip down the buildings closest to the city, being vampires this is much easier for us."

Shuichi grinned as Itachi snorted.

"Then what about these buildings here? The reapers can use them to hide."

Though there didn't seem to be any reapers.

"Ah, they can do so, but then we will see where they are, wouldn't we?"

Shuichi turned back around and let Itachi catch up so they could walk besides each other. He watched Itachi sidelong through his bangs as the human seemed to be deep in though.

"It is a trap."

Shuichi nodded and Itachi suddenly felt stupid for not having thought about it before. The idea was good. The reapers would get into the houses at night. During the day the vampires would just need to watch for houses with broken boards, kill the reapers that were now caught inside and nail the houses shut again. This way they would get rid of the reapers before they got close to the city.

After this ghost town they hiked through more forest and the occasionally fields. There were mostly grain and some rice fields as well as wide stretched orchards that he didn't remember of. He knew this area, they were on their way to the city Fuji.

"I think you will like our next stay. I definitely will enjoy myself."

They were walking up a steep hill. As they reached the top Itachi could see a small town sat in a valley. It was surrounded by a high wall. The ground around it was widely cleaned of trees and brush. The houses were dark, shutters and doors barred with more sturdy wood boards or even metal. In the middle of the town a big, sturdy looking and rounded metal cage sat around some buildings and, judging by the steaming water, a Spa.

"I guess this isn't your city yet?"

Shuichi shook his head as they hurriedly walked down the other side of the hill towards the big walls gate. The sun would be down in some time.

"It's some sort of an outskirt town. Here we store food and other things. And it is a base for missions in the surrounding area as well as a place for our soldiers and workers to laze and relax. A vacation resort you could say."

This sounded like a busy place then. They had reached the gate and Shuichi pushed as small door open to let them in and tightly closed it behind them.

"Are we alone?"

"We should be. This area was scheduled to be cleaned of reapers just yesterday. The soldiers should be gone by now."

It was true, the streets were empty. The buildings inside the metal cage were barracks for soldiers as well as an old hotel with a big adjoining Spa. They went for the hotel. Shuichi fumbled a little behind the counter at the entrance hall, but finally they had light.

"You have power here?"

Shuichi led him through some hallways into a room. It was big with two bigger beds each on one of the walls. The bathroom seemed nice too.

"We also have running water and fresh food. Shall we go into the kitchen to cook something or have a bath first.

"Kitchen. I'm hungry."

They put down their packs and Shuichi showed the way to the hotel kitchen. Together they decided on an easy meal, rice with chicken curry and coconut milk. They got the ingredients from the reefer and started cooking, all the while comparing different receipts.

Soon enough they enjoyed their meal. After that they prepared some Onigiri for the next morning from the left overs and cleaned up.

It was already late as they each grabbed towels and bathrobes from their room before going to the Spa. It looked nice and cozy and they didn't need to worry about reapers or other uninvited guests.

They went to the showers beforehand, wanting to wash of the roads dust afore going into the hot water. Today they had warm water instead of cold streams to wash and they savored it.

As Shuichi was shampooing his hair Itachi found his gaze following the trickle of foam running down the vampires back. He ripped his gaze away. Soon enough they were done and entered one of the rooms with a natural thermal spring.

Itachi let himself sink into the hot water sighing. He had missed this.

Shuichi walked over to a radio turning it on. It worked.

"Sorry if you don't like the music. We only have this one channel."

"I'm surprised you have one at all."

Shuichi shrugged and continued rummaging through a small refrigerator.

"We use it to update our people about important things and give them a more homely feeling."

He finally found what he wanted and joined Itachi, in his hand a small Sake bottle and two cups.

"Are you kidding?"

Again Shuichi shrugged as he opened the bottle and poured them each a drink.

"Why not? I think we deserve it. And it's just one small bottle."

Shuichi had already drowned his cup and sighed in contempt.

Against his inner voice Itachi took a cup from Shuichi and drank. The Sake was good. He refilled their cups. They toasted grinning at each other.

"On a good journey."

"And a better future."

They drank.

Soon enough both of them were slightly drunk and laughing loudly about silly childhood stories. They had just emptied a second bottle. The mood was all out good.

"Perhaps we should call it a day. Before we look like raisins."

"You don't look that bad."

Shuichi let out a small giggle before clasping his hand in front of his mouth and turning red. People like him didn't giggle like school girls. He cleared his throat before answering.

"I think I had a tad bit much Sake."

Itachi openly grinned at him.

"I agree let's get out."

Shuichi turned and carefully climbed out of the water, sitting himself on the pools edge, getting his legs up and moving onto his knees before grabbing his bathrobe and standing up. Itachi swallowed hard before getting out of the water with a little more grace than the vampire, who had just given him a perfect view of his behind. Surely not on purpose. But it had a bad effect on him.

He too wrapped the bathrobe loosely around himself, hoping it would hide the little problem he had. Perhaps he shouldn't have drunken this much.

Together they walked through the dimly lit hallways to their room. Shuichi opened the door and let Itachi walk in past him before turning and closing the door. But Itachi had already noticed his pink face. He wasn't the only one affected by the alcohol and as of right now he didn't care if it was the drinks fault or whatever. He also gave a damn about their situation as human and vampire, sworn enemies, as he watched Shuichi turn the key.

Itachi laid his hands on the door on each side of the vampire. As Shuichi turned around he pressed their bodies together successfully trapping the younger male between himself and the door. Before Shuichi could say or do anything more but press his hands on the humans chest to push him away Itachi leaned in to kiss him. It wasn't a harsh kiss, but soft and careful while at the same time demanding. If Shuichi didn't want this all he had to do was turn away. But he didn't. Instead he kissed back, slinging his arms around the older males neck. After this mutual agreement the shy kisses turned into needy ones. With arms slung around each other they staggered towards the nearest bed, pulling of their bathrobes on the way.

Shuichi was pushed down into the soft mattress, their hands roaming over the others body exploring and caressing. Tonight they wouldn't hold back.


	10. Day Eight: End of Journey

Being able to sleep in a real bed again was nice. Even better was the feeling of having someone in ones arms, thought he wondered about that.

Even after the alcohol wore of he didn't regret last night. Shuichi was still deep asleep, laying with his back to him while Itachi had his arm around the younger man's small waist.

It was already past dawn, the sun was shining through the cracks of the thick curtains. They should really get up, but Itachi decided it wouldn't hurt them to stay here for another night and lay back down. He was nearly asleep again, face nuzzled against Shuichi's neck as…

_Piep…piep…piep…piep…piep…_

Itachi jolted awake and hurriedly reached over Shuichi's body to turn off the alarm clock on the bedside table. But it was already too late, Shuichi groaned glaring at the clock in Itachi's hand.

"Damn, I totally forgot to turn off that thing."

Itachi let himself fall back into the mattress and closed his eyes again.

"If you want, we can stay here a while longer. Somehow I'm not in a hurry to get back to my city anymore."

Shuichi rolled onto his belly and looked at Itachi sideways grinning, his head propped onto a pillow.

"I see, no objections to sharing the room with a vampire anymore. Or do you like the hot spring this much?"

"Very much. And it's nice not to have to think about 'work', you said so yourself."

"I did."

Shuichi sighed.

"But I have to disappoint you, by nightfall this place will be buzzing with drunken soldiers enjoying their free time. I want to be gone before they get here."

Now it was Itachi's turn to sigh.

"Honestly, I had hoped for another relaxing night."

It took some more minutes dozing before they stood up and went to the kitchen for breakfast. After they took a shower and cleaned up the room, Shuichi lead Itachi to a shed on the outside of the metal cage. Inside were bicycles.

"This way we will reach the city within the next two hours."

The closer they got to the city the more activity Itachi saw. Again they were passing grain and rice fields as well as orchards, but this time no buildings where left standing. Now and then those fields were mixed in with far stretched meadows, where cows and horses and on the mountainous terrain sheep and goats were browsing. Each meadow had a shed, big enough for the animals to house in for the night, and sometimes herdsmen where watching over the herds.

They waved to them, some even were children accompanied by busy looking hounds. More and more people came their way, on bicycles, horses, even scooters and tractors. Farmers watching after their fields or people bringing in goods or hunting. Halfway to the city they had to stand to the side of the way as a large convoy with soldiers drove past them.

In the end nearly only meadows with animals could be seen, just before Itachi could make out the protecting walls of the former city Fuji near mount Fuji.

Itachi watched the high wall with astonishment as they approached the gates. If it wasn't for the walls and the guards on watch with their riffles he wouldn't had thought of the world living through a catastrophe right now. Outside the city, everything looked absolutely normal. He was curious about the inside.

And something else had stung him nearly every time they met someone on the streets.

"For a supposed vampire city you do have a lot of humans living here."

"Ah, that. Well, it started with a handful, but now we have nearly equal parts of humans and vampires. So far, we get along well."

"Really?"

Shuichi nodded smiling.

As they stepped up to the gates he noticed the guards questioning a man wanting to go out about his business and writing down in a book before letting him go. Shuichi noticed him watching.

"It is a safety measure. If you go out alone anything can happen. This way by nightfall we know if someone is still missing and can immediately conduct a search for them. Some people are annoyed by it, but it's safer this way."

"Is this why everyone here seems to have a dog tag?" Itachi had already studied Shuichi's tag. It had his name, age, some distinctive features, blood type and a number printed on it as well as his status of command and the fact that he is a vampire.

Shuichi nodded. It was their turn to step up to the guards.

Shuichi showed his dog tag to them.

"I'm Tomoya Shuichi, returning from a longer mission outside. My companion is Uchiha Itachi from Okasaki, visiting on short notice. Could you get Suigetsu to meet me at the quarantine as soon as possible?"

Shuichi turned around to Itachi, a rueful smile on his lips.

"I'm sorry, I know you want to see the city in full, but everyone gone for a night or longer with possible reaper contact has to stay in a separate section, called quarantine, for 3 days. You can either stay here and wait out that time before seeing the city or I can bring you back home sooner."

While Shuichi had been explaining the guards were talking to someone over a radio set. They seemed a little distressed over their orders.

"Tomoya-san, we have been ordered to forego quarantine and bring you directly to headquarters."

Shuichi looked at them bewildered at first, but soon got his bearings.

"Oh, well I will have a talk with them about breaking the rules, but bear with it for now please."

The guards mood seemed to ease a little and they nodded. From a watch room a pair of other guards came to accompany them. Taking the bicycles they led them through the wall.

"Why are you so strict about the quarantine?"

Itachi was whispering to Shuichi as the new guards watched them silently. Shuichi whispered back just as quiet.

"We once had some problems with people that got infected, if they knew or not we can't tell. Well, they turned into reapers inside the walls. It wasn't nice. Since then we normally have everyone undergo a quarantine to prevent something like this."

"Even humans?"

"Suddenly turning into a vampire can be very distressing and they might lose control of their blood thirst easily. So yes, even humans. And normally we don't make exceptions, even for higher ranked people, which is probably why the guards are so uneasy about it."

They reached the end of the wall. There was a second wall some hundred yards away from them. Between the two walls there were chicken crops, sheds for rabbits and the like as well as bigger sheds, probably for cows.

"You seem to have a lot of animal stock."

"Well, the people want to be feed. The place between the first two walls is solemnly for the animals. At night only the people who care for them are allowed to be here."

They followed the plastered way up to the second gate. This time the guards let them pass without so much as looking at them. Behind the gate two boys who seemed to be around 14 to 15 years took the bicycles from the two guards accompanying the two men to store them away.

Behind this wall seemed to be the soldiers area. Itachi could see barracks, a mess hall and training grounds. There was a sturdy looking, high metal fence with another gate and more guards further ahead. There also was a water channel. They walked through that gate and over a bridge, again without any resistance from the guards. Behind it were even more walls.

"Just how many walls do you have here? Mind telling me a little about the cities layout?"

"Well, the whole city is encircled by three walls: The outer wall, the inner wall and the metal fence we just passed. Between the outer and inner wall are our animals. Between the inner wall and the metal fence is the soldiers terrain. Behind it are the quarantine and the 'civil barracks' and the main city is in the middle. To the left you can see the sturdy stone wall that is separating the quarantine from the other sections."

Itachi looked around Shuichi, seeing grim looking guards on a wall that was nearly as high and sturdy as the outer and inner wall. A second low metal fence, not as sturdy as the first was continuing to his left, separating another section. There were more gates in it and no guards watching. There were big containers stacked over one another and with stairs and windows cut into them to make makeshift homes.

"This area is called 'civil barracks'. It also nearly circles the entire city, but for the quarantine section. It is for the new people who don't have any money yet or for those who can't work, haven't found work yet or simply refuse to work. They have running water, even warm, and energy for cooking and other things. Some containers have futons, a cooking area, toilets and even a shower. For the others, well they have to share the cooking areas, showers and toilets. There are enough of them though. They also get enough money to buy food and the like, just enough to live good with. If they want a better life or live in a real house they have to work and earn their money like everyone else."

Itachi nodded. "Sounds fair enough."

There were children playing in front of the containers and mothers hanging out their wash. It looked peaceful.

They followed the way past this area to the actual city. Here where normal houses as well as small stores lining their way. Itachi guessed they were heading to the big building in the middle of the city, he could already see it looming over the other, smaller buildings. People were buzzing about minding their own business and occasionally greeting them.

As they crossed a market place half way to the building Itachi could make out two more walls. A sturdy looking stone wall far to his left as well as one that looked similar to his right.

"What are those walls for?"

Shuichi saw where Itachi pointed.

"Oh, those. Well the one on the right is a separate all out human area, there are no vampires allowed in there. Some humans don't feel comfortable living with vampires as neighbors, but don't want to be transferred to another city. Of course they have to give us a good reason to living there, like a traumatized child. Otherwise, if they don't want to deal with living next to vampires, we bring them to other cities where only humans live. This is after all still a vampire city."

"I never heard of anyone that once lived here."

"Well, we erase their memory of the location of this place. Guess they didn't want to talk about it with other humans. I can understand that, since they might be looked down upon because they let themselves be helped by vampires."

Itachi nodded in agreement. He pointed to the other wall on their left.

"Than this wall is probably separating an all-out vampire area, isn't it?"

Shuichi grinned at him.

"It is, you got the concept of this place quite fast. That place is for those vampires who lack control of their blood thirst and those who fear they might lose control. There are no humans allowed and the place is guarded. Some of those fellows aren't allowed out alone or don't want to go out alone. They are given watchers, which are stronger than them in case something happens, to accompany them. Some are even living there together."

"And it works out?"

Shuichi sighed.

"Well, more or less. There are always problems with thieves and the like in every city. Here isn't any different."

"How did you manage to build all this walls and the like up in such short time?"

Shuichi looked at Itachi thoughtful.

"We are vampires. Some of us can move the earth or heavy things with ease. We can do things in just moments without any machines, where humans would need days or weeks."

Itachi wanted to slap himself. He could have thought of that one himself. They had nearly reached the building.

"Say, what do you do with vampires or humans that don't stick to the rules?"

Shuichi looked down and then away.

"Well, the humans get transferred to another city. The vampires, if they go against some rules they are confined in the all-out vampire area with a watcher till they've come to their senses again. But if they hurt humans, without any regret…well, we can't just send them away to another city and we can't simply throw them out, they would come back as reapers. So…"

Shuichi continued looking at the ground.

"You kill them."

Shuichi nooded.

"Well, there is no way around it. We don't have the place, nor the people and time for a prison. If we could take away their vampire powers it would be different, but we can't."

Itachi laid his hand on Shuichi's should lightly squeezing it before letting go again. He understood Shuichi's point just too well. They had reached the building.

The two guards that had led them here were replaced by another set that now lead them through the building. They stopped in front of a room.

Shuichi shortly knocked on the door and then entered. At a desk to the side a silver haired man was sitting reading trough files. He looked up at them and grinned.

"Shu, so you're still alive."

He stood and went over to Shuichi, they hugged each other shortly.

"And I see you brought something back with you."

The silver haired vampire glared at Itachi, who only gave him a short nod. The glare intensified.

"Couldn't you have left him out there, he…ouch!"

Shuichi had slapped the other vampires head, hard.

"Stop it, you're rude. Itachi this is Suigetsu. Don't mind his behavior, seems he was brought up in a chicken crop."

Suigetsu rubbed his sore had and sat back down at his table.

"At least I could eat eggs every day. Why aren't you in the quarantine, have they changed the rules or something without notifying me again?"

Shuichi had sat himself on Suigetsu desk, squashing some papers and earning a glare from the older male.

"I don't know myself. I thought you had ordered that, since we were to be brought to your office?"

"It wasn't me, I didn't even know you were back yet, till…"

The door suddenly opened interrupting Suigetsu. Two men and a woman, all past their forties, walked in. The oldest of the men spoke.

"Tomoya-san, we would like to have a word. Now if you don't mind."

He pointed towards a door in the back, probably a meeting room. Shuichi's face was sour, but he followed them in. They didn't do more but shortly glance at Itachi, before shutting the door with an audible _bang_.

"Uh-oh, he's going to be lectured again."

"Again?"

Itachi looked at the other male. They were alone now, the guards had already left them. At first Suigetsu glared at him, but then he sighed and offered Itachi a seat in front of his desk who gratefully took it. Suigetsu made a short phone call. A young vampire woman entered the room shortly after, carrying a tray and looking annoyed.

"You know I'm not your serving girl."

She put the tray down between the two men.

"But I like you serving me, Karin-chan."

The comment earned Suigetsu a buffet on the ears.

"Uchiha-san, please serve yourself."

Itachi nodded and poured himself some coffee. The girl looked at him now.

"Uchiha? Does that mean Shuichi is back."

Suigetsu continued munching his cookie and pointed his thumb back at the door Shuichi went through.

"Yep, he's back in there with the hyenas."

"Excuse me, but who were those people?"

The woman, Karin, sat down in the chair next to Itachi regarding him with eyes alight. She answered his question while Suigetsu continued munching cookies.

"They are the human part of our council and help leading the city and stuff."

"They are a bunch of stuck up, greedy old idiots, who think they have control over the city and but their heads into anything we vampires do trying to rule us. We should just through them out already."

Karin kicked Suigetsu's shins, earning a muffled groan.

"That hurt."

"It was supposed to do so."

They glared at each other.

"Is Shuichi in trouble?"

Suigetsu leaned his head on his hand giving Itachi a weird look.

"So you're already calling each other by first names? Nah, he can handle them."

At this moment the door to the other room opened. The three humans walked past them without any notice, a sour look on their faces. Shuichi too looked sour, he closed the door and then stuck out his tongue at their retreating backs. The office door closed with a slam.

"It seems you had fun being reprimanded?"

Shuichi snorted and let himself fall into the seat previously occupied by Karin. The woman had left the room hurriedly as she heard the phone ring in her own office.

"Like I'm a child they found stealing cookies."

He gave Itachi a rueful look.

"I'm sorry, again, I said I would let you have a closer look at the city, but the human council objects. See, I have to stay on their good side for now. Their annoying but we need them. They want you to leave immediately. At least I could change their mind about having your memories erased."

"Well, thank you for that, I guess. When and how do I have to leave?"

"We will be bringing you back with a helicopter today, I fear they will have it ready in about an hour."

Itachi nodded.

"Say, are you short on medicines or anything? I'm sure we have some to spare, right Suigetsu."

Suigetsu grinned, shuffling through some files.

"Is it wise to piss them of anymore? Not that I would mind, their funny when they throw a tantrum. I will have Juugo organize something in a hurry."

"As of right now, I could give a damn. If you don't mind, have Karin make a summary of our researches on the blood pills and so on for Itachi to take with him. And tell her to give some samples too. Come on Itachi, I can at least show you around a little during the remaining time, though you are forbidden to talk to anyone. They surely will have us guarded."

And he was right. As Shuichi opened the door a squad of five human guards awaited them. Shuichi glared at them, but the guards didn't seem to be bothered, the leader actually grinned right out back.

"You know, if you wouldn't be doing so many things they object to we wouldn't be sent to babysit you so often and would have way more free time. That would be quite nice, wouldn't it guys?"

The other men chuckled.

"I'm sorry to cut into your free time so often. Am I allowed to have a walk through the city or will I be confined to my rooms now?"

The leader shook his head.

"The city is no good. And you really might want to retreat to your rooms. Since we aren't allowed in there you can have a talk. Otherwise we are ordered to, well, muzzle you and confine Uchiha-san in headquarters till the helicopter is ready. You won't have a chance to see him off then."

Shuichi gazed at the ceiling thinking.

"And please don't try to slip out the window again."

He glared at the grinning human and sighed.

"Allright then, let's go to my rooms."

Itachi silently followed them outside. They were at the back of the building, closer to the sea. After a quiet 5 minute walk through the city they reached an apartment complex. They went up to the first floor and down a corridor. Shuichi stopped at a door that had his name printed on it and glared one last time at their human guards before opening the door and shooing Itachi inside. He closed it with a sigh. Before he could say anything a child, Itachi guessed around the age of 8 or 9, run past him to crash into the vampire.

"You're back."

"So I am, what are you doing here anyway."

The boy seemed to remember something important as his eyes got huge. He let go of Shuichi and run back the direction he came from, screaming over his back.

"Playing games."

Itachi gave Shuichi a discerning look.

"Is that your brother or…"

"No! He's not my child. He's only some annoying little freeloader who comes by from time to time."

"Am not!"

Itachi could hear the child complaining from the living room.

"Well, you could call him my little brother. You want something to drink?"

Shuichi lead him past the living room to the kitchen. The boy was sitting in front of a TV playing some game. Itachi sat down at the kitchen table watching Shuichi buzzing around the kitchen while trying not to step on a small cat with mostly white fur and some gray markings.

"If you have any questions so far just ask. DAICHI!"

"WHAT!"

"There are some guards outside the window, want some real fun?"

Shuichi was getting a bag of water balloons from a cupboard and giving them to the boy who, with an eager look on his face, went to the bathroom with them. Itachi barely hide a grin.

"Is it alright to be annoying the guards? They're just doing their job, you know."

Shuichi waved his hand at Itachi lazily as he sat down opposite him after putting drinks and a cake on the table.

"They're used to it by now. So, any questions?"

"There has been something bothering me. You said you have a blood shortage. Are the humans here, well, giving their blood to be allowed to stay here?"

It would make sense this way. Shuichi nodded.

"They have to give a blood fee when they want to live here. It's only once a month and only adults are required to do so and they get money for it. Children over 14 may do so, if they want to, but we don't take any blood from younger children. The people you saw earlier, they tried to change it. But this is after all still a vampire city. We need the blood and most humans are alright with it, if it means living as comfortable and safe as they do here."

"But there are some that object?"

"Yeah, the more humans we had in the city the more people started to be against it. It is mostly the new humans, that haven't lived here for so long."

"But you can't change it now."

"No not yet, we do need the blood. We had an open debate about it some weeks ago. Those people who are against it lost, because they didn't had an answer about how to keep us vampires alive, if we wouldn't get any more blood."

"Well, that's that. You can't live without blood and they should accept that or go live somewhere else. At least that's my opinion."

Shuichi smiled back at the human.

"You know, one week ago you probably never would have said something like that and side with vampires."

"I'm not on anyone's side, it is simply logical reasoning."

"Sure it is. Unfortunately the voices that are supporting the other side are getting louder each day. Any idea how to deal with them?"

Itachi shook his head no.

Suddenly someone banged at the door.

"Tomoya-san! It's time!"

"Oh drat, they're really fast."

Together they stood up. After saying goodbye to Daichi the guards lead them through part of the city again into the soldiers area on the sea side. Here the helicopter waited for them.

"I'm going to accompany you back."

"I fear that won't do Tomoya-san, we are ordered to prevent you from leaving."

Shuichi turned towards their guards, crossed his arms and glared.

"Do you really think you will be able to hold _me_ back?"

The guards grinned.

"Didn't you have a burn out? Right now you're as weak as a kitten in comparison to us."

"Damn you. I still will be going."

The leader just shrugged his shoulders and waved of his men.

"Do as you please. If you ask me, those council members are getting a little over themselves. I would have set them straight long ago."

And with that he left them. Itachi leaned towards Shuichi to whisper in his ear.

"Aren't they supposed to be supporting the human council?"

"Those people have been soldiers for a longer time now. They see us vampires work and fight just as hard as them. They understand us, so they are actually supporting us as long as we are fair with our leading and so on."

Itachi nodded. They went into the helicopter. It was filled with the medications Shuichi had talked about. Just before they took of Karin came running.

"I'm sorry, I didn't had time to prepare anything but here is a short summary of things so far."

She handed a file of papers to Itachi who thanked her. Off they took.

"I will make sure to send the rest of our researches to you some other time."

It was hard to understand Shuichi's voice with the wind blowing fiercely.

In silence they passed over the areas Shuichi and Itachi had hiked through these last days. Itachi recognized the places even from high above. He thought about their journey till they reached Osaka, it was nearly evening. The sun would be down in about an hour.

Itachi gave the people of his town a call over the radio set, so they would come pick him up outside the city walls. He understood the vampires not wanting to risk their lives by setting him down inside the city. He wouldn't trust his father either in this situation.

Carefully the helicopter landed onto a nearby hill. Itachi and Shuichi jumped out helping to unload the medicines.

They were nearly done as they could see the gates being opened and a convoy with heavily armed men leaving in their direction.

Shuichi and Itachi looked at each other.

"This was a very educative experience."

Shuichi smiled.

"I guess we will see each other again sometime. Hopefully not in an emergency."

Itachi nodded, he grabbed Shuichi by the forearm and gave a half hug which the vampire returned. One of the men from the helicopter whistled at them and got a rude gesture from Shuichi in return.

Itachi grinned.

"Se ya."

Shuichi waved as the helicopter ascended into the air again watching the cars approaching Itachi.

Itachi too turned towards the soldiers, which were regarding him with guns raised. He sighed, knowing his father would be questioning him throughout during the night.

Perhaps he would keep the vampires location to himself for now and play at having his memory erased, like he had expected it to happen. Just to piss of his father.

After all, he needed to rethink his view on vampires.

* * *

AN: Hope you enjoyed reading

Perhaps I will manage a sequel...


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